5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



THE 

THEISTIO CONCEPTION OF 
THE WORLD. 

AN ESSAY 

IN OPPOSITION TO CERTAIN TENDENCIES 
OF MODERN THOUGHT. 

By b! R COCKEE, D.D., LL.D., 

PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ', 
AUTHOR OF "CHRISTIANITY AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY." 



"Science discloses the method of the world, hut not its cause; Eeligion, its cause, 
but not its method."— Martineau. 



NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1875. 



*? 1875 



-0 



<&* 



Czr 



Harper & Brothers, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



The present volume was announced in the preface to 
" Christianity and Greek Philosophy " as nearly ready 
for publication under the title of " Christianity and Mod- 
ern Thought." 

CD 

Several considerations have induced the author to de- 
lay its appearance, the most influential of which has 
been the desire to await the culmination among a class 
of self-styled " advanced thinkers " of what they have 
been pleased to call " the tendency of modern thought." 
Xo extraordinary sagacity was needed to foresee the issue, 
or to predict that it must soon be reached. The transi- 
tion has been rapid from negative criticism of the Chris- 
tian religion to direct assault upon the very foundation 
of all religion — the personality and providence of God. 
Distrust of a supernatural revelation, and denial of all 
authority to the teaching of the sacred Scriptures, has 
been succeeded by doubt of the existence of God in the 
proper import of that sacred name. The Theistic postu- 
late is degraded to the rank of a mere hypothesis, which is 
pronounced inadequate to explain the universe. A " law- 
governed Cosmos, full of life and reason," eternal and in- 



iv PREFACE. 

finite, must now take the place of a personal God, the 
Creator and Ruler of the universe. This is the " New 
Faith " which is to supersede the Old. 

The question, "Are we still Christians?" has received 
a final answer in the words of Strauss : " If we would 
speak as honest, upright men, we must acknowledge we 
are no longer Christians." 1 And in giving this answer he 
is confident he speaks in the name of a large and rapidly 
increasing number of men who once believed in the truth 
of Christianity — " The We I mean no longer counts only 
by thousands." 2 The further question, " Have we still a 
Religion ?" (understanding by religion " the recognition 
and veneration of God, and the belief in a future life ") 
is also answered in the negative. Religion " is a delusion, 
to abolish which ousrht to be the endeavor of every man 
whose eyes are open to the truth." 3 The only question 
which now remains for the speculative intellect is, "What 
is our conception of the Universe V — the conception 
which henceforth must take the place of a personal God. 
The answer of Strauss is explicit, and in his estimation 
final : " The conception of the Cosmos, instead of that of 
a personal God as the finality to which we are led by 
perception and thought, or as the ultimate fact beyond 
which we can not proceed, . . . assumes the more definite 
shape of matter infinitely agitated, which, by differentia- 
tion and integration, develops itself to ever higher forms 

1 "The Old Faith and the New," vol. i. p. 107. s Ibid. vol. i. p. 3." 

3 Ibid. vol. i. p. 158. 



PREFACE. v 

and functions, and describes an everlasting circle by evo- 
lution, dissolution, and then fresh evolution." 1 

This may be called pantheism or atheism, materialism 
or idealism, just as we please ; Strauss has no solicitude 
about mere names. " If this be considered pure, unmiti- 
gated materialism, I will not dispute it. In fact, I have 
always tacitly regarded the contrast so loudly proclaimed 
between materialism and idealism (or by whatever term 
one may designate the view opposed to the former) as a 
mere quarrel about words. They have a common foe in 
the dualism which pervaded the conception of the world 
throughout the Christian era, dividing man into body 
and soul, his existence into time and eternity, and op- 
posing an eternal Creator to a created and perishable 
universe." 2 

The end is reached at last — no soul, no God, no provi- 
dence, no immortality ! We have waited for a culmina- 
tion, and now we are called upon to look, " not into the 
golden Orient, but vaguely all around into a dim, copper 
firmament pregnant with earthquake and tornado." Or, 
rather, we are called to look into an abyss, and, " shouting 
question after question into the Sibyl -cave of Destiny, 
receive no answer" save "the Everlasting No." It only 
remains for us to listen to Strauss's De Profundis and 
retire. " The loss of the belief in providence belongs, 
indeed, to the most sensible deprivations which are con- 
nected with a renunciation of Christianity. In the enor- 

1 " The Old Faith and the New," vol. ii. p. 35. a Ibid. vol. ii. p. 19. 



VI PREFACE. 

mous machine of the universe, amid the incessant whirl 
and hiss of its jagged iron wheels, amid the deafening 
crash of its ponderous stamps and hammers, in the midst 
of this whole terrific commotion, man — a helpless and de- 
fenseless creature — finds himself placed, not secure for a 
moment that on some imprudent motion a wheel may 
not seize and rend him, or a hammer crush him to pow- 
der. This sense of abandonment is at first something aw- 
ful. But, then, what avails it to have recourse to an illu- 
sion? Our wish is impotent to refashion the world; the 
understanding clearly shows that it indeed is such a ma- 
chine. But it is not merely this. We do not only find 
the revolution of pitiless wheels in our world-machine, but 
also the shedding of soothing oil. Our God [the world- 
machine] does not, indeed, take us into his arms from the 
outside, but he unseals the well-spring of consolation with- 
in our own bosoms. . . . He who can not help himself in 
this matter is beyond help, is not yet ripe for our stand- 
point." ' 

There is a weighty and solemn lesson in this illustration 
of the "tendency of modern thought" — a lesson which 
even Strauss intended to teach the age, viz., that there is 
no discernible via media between "the Old Faith and 
the New" — between the belief in a personal God and the 
impersonal All. The "New Faith" must at last be the 
faith of all who reject providence, that providence which 
is pre-eminently revealed in history, instituting a king- 

1 "The Old Faith and the New," vol. ii. p. 213. 



PREFACE. v ii 

dom of God upon earth by a supernatural guidance and 
grace. 

The issue, now so sharply and clearly defined, between 
a God and no God, has determined a change in the plan 
of our work, and justifies, we trust, the attempt we have 
made to restate and defend " The Theistic Conception of 
the World." 

Those who have done me the honor to read " Christi- 
anity and Greek Philosophy" will detect in the present 
volume a radical change of views concerning the concepts 
Time and Space. This change of position is the result of 
patient reconsideration of this branch of the discussion, 
and we allude to it here simply to guard against the 
charge of unconscious inconsistency. The views present- 
ed in this volume must stand or fall on their own merits. 

The author has to acknowledge many obligations to his 
friend, Dr. Bernard Moses, for material aid rendered in 
getting this work through the press. 

University of Michigan, July, 1875. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
The Problem Stated „ . . . 13 

CHAPTER II. 
God the Creator 27 

CHAPTER III. 
The Creation 56 

CHAPTER IV. 
Creation. — The Genesis or Beginning 97 

CHAPTER V. 
Creation: Its History 127 

CHAPTER VI. 
Conservation. — The Relation of God to the World . . . 172 

CHAPTER VII. 

Conservation. — The Relation of God to the World . . . 202 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Providence of God in Human History. — The Relation of 

God to Humanity 244 



X CONTEXTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER IX. 
Special Providence and Peayer 292 

CHAPTER X. 

Moral Government. — Its Grounds, the Correlation between 

God and Man 344 

CHAPTER XL 

Moral Government. — Its Nature, Condition, Method, and 

End .• 366 



" To such readers as have reflected on man's life; who understand that 
for man's well-being Faith is properly the one thing needful ; how with it 
martyrs, otherwise weak, can cheerfully endure the shame and the cross ; 
and without it worldlings puke up their sick existence by suicide in the 
midst of luxury : to such it will be clear that for a pure moral nature, the 
loss of religious belief is the loss of every thing. 

"All wounds, the crush of long-continued destitution, the stab of false 
friendship and of false love, all wounds in thy so genial heart, would have 
healed again had not its life-warmth been withdrawn. 

" Well mayest thou exclaim, ' Is there no God, then ; but at best an ab- 
sentee God, sitting idle, ever since the first Sabbath, at the outside of his 
universe and seeing it go ?' ' Has the word Duty no meaning ; is what we 
call Duty no Divine messenger and guide, but a false earthly phantasm made 
up of desire and fear ?' ' Is the heroic inspiration we name Virtue but some 
passion ; some bubble of the blood, bubbling in the direction others profit 
by ?' I know not : only this I know, If what thou namest Happiness be our 
true aim, then are we all astray. ' Behold, thou art fatherless, outcast, and 
the universe is — the Devil's.' " — Caklyle. 



THE THEISTIC 
CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PROBLEM STATED. 



As Archimedes demanded only one fixed point in order 
to move the world, so Descartes desired to find one certain 
and indubitable principle upon which he could plant his 
feet and lift himself out of the universal doubt which en- 
vironed him. He found it in the proposition — I exist. 
This for me is the most direct, immediate, and certain of 
all intuitions. I can not doubt, I can not deny my own 
existence. Whatever else I doubt, I can not doubt that I, 
the doubter, exist. This I that thinks, that is conscious, is 
the fundamental reality} 

I see around me a plurality of personal existences who 
are self-conscious and self-manifesting beings — beings who 
think and feel, and display their activities in time and 
space, as I do ; and I can no more donbt their existence 
than I can doubt my own. This combination of the con- 
tent of external perception with that of internal perception 
gives the immediate consciousness of external reality? 

Besides these personal existences analogous to my own, 

1 Ueberweg's " History of Philosophy," vol. ii. p. 41. 

2 Uebenveg"s "Logic," p. 91. 



14 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

there are other objects which exist in relation to my cor- 
poreal organism — relations of position, distance, and direc- 
tion, which are purely objective. These existences offer 
resistance to my muscular effort to displace them in space, 
and defy all my mental effort to reduce them to the cate- 
gory of subjective phenomena. These objects have specific 
properties or exist in certain conditions which, in their 
mutual relation with my sensitive organism, produce in 
me certain vital affections, as heat, light, color, and sound. 
These affections presuppose a force or energy outside of 
my consciousness, and distinct from myself. Thus I am 
"constrained to believe that the earth on which I tread, the 
heavens that shine upon me, the forms and movements 
which surround me, are not vain shadows, unreal phantoms 
of my own creation, but real entities. The totality of ex- 
istence called the universe is for me a reality. 

The phenomena of the universe are in ceaseless flow and 
change. Bodies are aggregated and dissolved. Plants 
are evolved from germs, they live and grow, then decay 
and perish. Animals and men are born and developed to 
maturity, then they sicken and die. The earth itself is in 
constant change. The storms of heaven, the erosion of 
the atmosphere, the gnawing of the tidal wave, the mount- 
ain torrent, the flowing river, the earthquake and the 
volcano, are perpetually changing the aspect of the globe. 
There is perpetual genesis, ceaseless "becoming, incessant 
change. 

Beneath all these changes there is an enduring " some- 
thing." There are abiding constants as well as fleeting 
changes ; enduring realities as well as unstable phenomena. 
The same forms and relations, the same forces and laws, 
the same analogous functions, and the same archetypal 
ideas, remain amid all individual changes. There is an 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 15 

enduring substance which is the subject of all these 
changes. There is a permanent force, or power, which is 
the cause of all change. There are constant numerical 
proportions, determinate geometrical forms, specific ideal 
archetypes, and special ends, which give the law of all 
change. The universe is not a mere aggregation of phe- 
nomena, a mere concourse of things in time and space 
with accidental resemblances : it is a unity, a cosmos, a 
harmonious whole, both in its contemporaneous and suc- 
cessive history. 

So much is and always has been known, with more or 
less clearness and distinctness by all men, and known by 
a spontaneous and immediate intuition. This intuition, 
like every intuition, even the commonest intuition of 
sense, has had a gradual development both in the con- 
sciousness of the individual, and in the consciousness of 
the race. It has always been immanent in human thought 
even when not articulately expressed in human language. 
To the native common-sense of our race, the world is a 
reality, not a dream ; to the universal reason of mankind 
the universe is a harmony, not a chaos. Men have in- 
stinctively apprehended some ideal relations, some causal 
connection, some adaptation and purpose in nature, and 
they have always had some intuition, however dim and 
shadowy, of an all -pervading tcnity, and an ultimate 
causative principle. 

But when the universe has become the object of reflec- 
tive thought, when man has attempted a colligation of 
the individual facts, and an ideal construction and ra- 
tional interpretation of the phenomena, when he has 
sought to grasp the manifoldness and diversity of nature 
in a higher unity of thought, and, above all, when he has 
attempted to pass beyond phenomena and their relations, 



16 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and form a conception of the absolute reality and ulti- 
mate cause — then it is that difficulties have arisen and 
questions have presented themselves which have per- 
plexed the discursive reason, and taxed the genius of the 
ablest thinkers of every age. 

1. First of all, there have arisen the fundamental ques- 
tions : Has the universe always existed, or had the Cos- 
mos, with its changes and constants, its forces and laws, 
its forms and relations, a Beginning f Is its present con- 
dition but one link in an endless chain, one phasis in a 
series of changes, which had no beginning and shall have 
no end % Is the universe limited both in space and dura- 
tion, or is it unlimited, unbeginning, and endless % 

2. If the universe had a beginning, what is the apxh — 
the originant, causative Principle in which or from which 
it had its beginning ? How are we to conceive aright that 
First Principle of all existence and of all knowledge ? 
is it material or spiritual, intelligent or unintelligent % 

3. What conception are we to form of the nature and 
mode of that beginning ? Was it a pure supernatural 
Origination — an absolute creation 1 or was it simply a 
Formation out of a first matter or first force — an artistic, 
architectonic, demiurgic creation ? Was that beginning 
determined by necessity or by choice ? Was it an un- 
conscious emanation from, or a necessary development of, 
the First Principle ; or was it a conscious forth-putting 
of power for the realization of a foreseen, premeditated, 
predetermined plan — a mental Order. 

4. A supernatural Origination being assumed, then, 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 17 

from that first initial act of absolute creation, has the proc- 
ess of formation been gradual, continuous, and uniform 
— a progressive Evolution from the homogeneous to the 
heterogeneous, from lower to higher forms, according to 
a changeless law of uniformity and continuity ? or have 
there been marked, distinct, and successive stages of for- 
mation — creative epochs which may be called " new be- 
ginnings ?" Is the historic unity of creation a unity of 
Thought, an ideal consecution ? or is it simply a physical 
unity grounded in a material nexus — a genetic connection 
resulting from the necessary action of physical causes ? 



creation? Is the Deity, in any sense, immanent in, or 
does he dwell altogether apart from, and out of all con- 
nection with, the universe ? Has any finite thing or being 
an independent existence ? Have the forces of nature 
any reality apart from the Divine efficiency ? Did the 
Creator, in the be^innin^, <nve self-bein^ to the substance 
of the universe, and endow it with properties and forces, 
so that it can exist and act apart from, and independently 
of, the First Cause ? or is God still in nature upholding all 
substance, the power of all force, the life of all life, shap- 
ing all forms, and organizing all systems ? Is God not 
only the Creator but the Conservator of all things % 

6. Is there any Ethical meaning, any moral significance 
in the universe ? Is the physical order of the universe 
subordinated to a moral order in which freedom exists ? 
Are there any indications that the existence of moral per- 
sonality is the end toward which all the successive changes 
of nature have tended, and the progressive types of life 
have been a preparation and a prophecy ? Was the earth 

B 



18 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

designed to be a theatre for the development of moral 
character, the education and discipline of moral beings ? 
Does the course of history reveal " a power that works 
for righteousness," and aims at the highest perfection of 
rational and free beings ? In a word, is there a Provi- 
dential Government of the world ? 

7. Does man stand in a more immediate relation to 
God than the things of nature ? Is each individual the 
charge of a providence, the subject of a moral govern- 
ment, and the heir to a future retribution ? Has man a 
spiritual and immortal nature ? Has he the power so to 
determine his own action and character that he can justly 
be held accountable, and treated as the proper subject of 
reward and punishment % In the final issue of things, will 
every human being meet his righteous deserts, and be re- 
warded or punished according to his works ? In short, is 
man under Moral Government f 

These are the great, the vital questions of to-day. In 
one form or another they have engaged the attention and 
stimulated the earnest thought of the ablest and best of 
minds in past ages ; and, whether from the inherent de- 
mand of reason, or the promptings of instinctive curiosity, 
they have a deeper hold on the mind of this, than of any 
preceding age. 

We approach the discussion of these questions with a 
profound conviction of their magnitude and difficulty, 
and an oppressive foreboding that our essay will be pro- 
nounced ambitious and vain. Their vastness seems to 
defy our admeasurement, and their complexity and diffi- 
culty may defeat our feeble efforts at solution. " The 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 19 

mer-de-glace of the Infinite is covered with myriads of 
philosophic insects which have been carried up there and 
lost." May we hope for any better fate ? Do the prob- 
lems permit any solution at all ? 

Of one thing, at any rate, we are sure : these questions 
are native to the human mind. They arise spontaneously 
in presence of the facts of the universe. However much 
of human effort to solve these problems has ended in fail- 
ure and defeat, the human mind has never lost confidence 
in the possibility of their ultimate solution, and humanity 
has never abandoned them in despair. 1 A few impatient 
souls have plunged into Pyrrhonism and taken refuge in 
universal skepticism ; while others have sought to organ- 
ize nescience into a science. But patient, earnest souls 
have never cast away their faith in the integrity of uni- 
versal reason, and have never ceased to believe that its 
ideas and laws are, in truth, the ideas and laws of the uni- 
verse. These problems are the great problems of all 
philosophy, and all religion ; and unless philosophy be a 
dream, and religion an illusion, they are capable of such 
a solution as shall satisfy the reason of man. 2 This con- 

1 This is mournfully conceded by Geo. Henry Lewes (an avowed Com- 
tean) : "No array of argument, no accumulation of contempt, no historical 
exhibition of the fruitlessness of its effort, has sufficed to extirpate the 
tendency toward metaphysical speculation. Although its doctrines have 
become a scoff (except among the valiant few), its method still survives, still 
prompts to renewed research, and still misleads some men of science. In 
vain History points to the failure of twenty centuries ; the metaphysician ad- 
mits the fact,- but appeals to History in proof of the persistent passion which 
no failure can dismay ; and hence draws confidence in ultimate success. A 
cause which is vigorous after centuries of defeat is a cause baffled but not 
hopeless, beaten but not subdued. The ranks of its army may be thinned, 
its banners torn and mud-stained ; but the indomitable energy breaks out 
anew, and the fight is continued." — " Problems of Life and Mind," p. 7. 

2 " Every religion may be defined as an a priori theory of the universe. 
The surrounding facts being given, some form of agency is alleged which, in 
the opinion of those alleging it, accounts for these facts. . . . Nay, even that 



20 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

viction, which is common to the mass of thoughtful men, 
will justify every attempt of philosophy to attain to an 
ultimate unity of thought. The ultimate harmony of 
physical, philosophical, aud religious truth is the faith of 
all noble minds. 

The signs of the times are propitious. To-day the con- 
flict between reason and faith, science and religion, pre- 
sents many hopeful indications of an approaching con- 
ciliation. Candid men in both fields are earnestly work- 
ing, and patiently watching, and hourly catching clearer 
glimpses of the everlasting harmony which pervades the 
universe of being and of thought. Every, even the small- 
est, contribution made with an honest purpose to give con- 
fidence and collimation to this movement, will be welcome 
to all earnest minds. This may be our apology for at- 
tempting a task that belongs to stronger intellects than 
ours. 

It is obvious, at first thought, that the questions before 
us admit of no loose and desultory treatment. Abysses 
are not to be concealed by laurel screens, or chasms bridged 
by flowers of rhetoric. If we are to reach any satisfactory 
conclusions, our procedure must be rigidly systematic and 
logically exact. We must have a fixed point of departure, 
and, if possible, a faultless method of advance. The fun- 
damental question must be determined. The central prob- 
lem must be ascertained, and we must deal with all cor- 
relative questions in their logical connection with the one 
fundamental inquiry. 

First of all, then, can we place that central problem 

which is commonly regarded as the negation of all religion — even positive 
Atheism, comes within the definition ; for it, too, in asserting the self-exist- 
ence of Space, Matter, and Motion, which it regards as adequate causes of 
every appearance, propounds an a priori theory from which it holds the facts 
to be deducible." — Spencer, "First Principles, "p. 43. 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 21 

clearly before our mental vision? Amid the diverse ques- 
tions which spontaneously arise in presence of the diver- 
sified phenomena of nature, and the wonderful evolutions 
of humanity, can we fix upon the one question in which 
all others are involved — the grand underlying problem 
which comprehends them all ? 

A little reflection will make it apparent that the problem 
of all problems is this — 

How shall we conceive aright the first principle and 
origin of all things, itself unoriginated and unbeginning \ 
the source of all "beginnings f Or again, what is that 
first principle which, being assumed, shall be found a 
sufficient explanation of the motion and change ^he order 
and adajrtation, the life and feeling, the consciousness 
and reason, we call, collectively, the universe? 

This is clearly the fundamental question on which all 
the others are grounded, and in the solution of which they 
have their solution. 

The universe presents itself to sense and sense-perception 
as a perpetual genesis, " a vast aggregation and history of 
phenomena conditioned in time and space which, by its 
diversity and mutability, is disqualified from being re- 
garded as independent and self-existent." To our experi- 
ential knowledge, to our physical science in its highest 
generalizations, the universe is a product, an effect. And 
it is an effect for which the reason demands an explana- 
tion and a cause. It is a manifoldness and diversity which 
the logical understanding is ceaselessly endeavoring to re- 
duce to a unity. Indeed, every movement of thought, from 
the first rude attempt at classification on the simple basis 
of resemblance, upward to the recognition of more pro- 
found ideal relations and uniform laws, until its culmina- 
tion in the highest integration of reason, is but the effort 



22 THE THE IS TIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of the mind to grasp the individual facts of nature in a 
unity of thought, and interpret the universe according to 
principles and ideas which the reason supplies. 

The moment reflective thought is directed to the phenom- 
enal world, the questions spontaneously arise — Out of what 
does the phenomenal come ? By what agency or efficiency 
does it arise ? Why does it present itself in this order 
rather than another ? Or, more specifically — What is the 
abiding reality which sustains the array of phenomena? 
What is the invisible power which effects all the changes 
we see around us ? What is that unseen presence which 
determines the forms, relations, and adaptations which 
every where present themselves to the reason of man ? In 
a word, What is that ultimate principle — the last or re- 
motest in the order of analytic thought, the first in the 
order of being and of reason — which sustains and moves 
and organizes and governs all — that fundamental, abid- 
ing primus which is everlastingly present behind the scen- 
ery and changes of the world — that which always was, 
and now is, and ever shall be first? Or if we permit 
ourselves to regard the present order of things as a neces- 
sary out-birth from the past, still we are compelled by a 
laborious effort of regressive thought to climb upward 
through a series of changes to an absolutely first of the 
series conditioning all the other members, but itself un- 
conditioned. Few will now claim that this is the natural 
and adequate cosmical conception ; but, even under this 
mode of conception, we can not but feel that a develop- 
ment without a beginning of the process, a series without 
a first term, is impossible. " The absolute infinity of a se- 
ries is a contradiction in adjecto. As every number, al- 
though immeasurably and inconceivably great, is impossi- 
ble unless unity is given as its basis, so every series, being 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 23 

itself a number, is impossible unless a first term is given 
as its commencement." Therefore the question still re- 
turns — What is that First Principle of all things ? 

In obedience to this demand of reason, or impelled by 
an innate "wonder" — "the feeling of the philosopher" — 
men have in all ages attempted an ideal construction and 
rational interpretation of the universe. 1 The Mythologies, 
Cosmogonies, Philosophies, Religions of the ancient world 
were the simple products of this innate tendency. Beyond 
the circle of thought illuminated by Divine revelation, the 
first movement of reflection was unmethodical and incom- 
plete. Pursuing the inquiries objectively, that is, in the 
realm of outward nature, and not subjectively in the realm 
of reason, the human mind was perpetually entangled with 
dualistic conceptions. There were contrarieties, polarities, 
antagonisms, which the logical understanding could not 
cancel. Hence we have, as an early, perhaps the earliest, 
form of construction, an Oriental Dualism — as in the 
Adonis and Moloch of the Phoenicians, the Isis and Osiris 
of the Egyptians, the Ormuzd and Ahriman of the Persians, 
the Chaos and Love of Orpheus, the Plenum and Vacuum 
(Matter and Space) of Democritus, and even some linger- 
ing taint in the God and Necessity of Plato's " Timasus." 

But all this was unsatisfactory to human reason, which 
is a unity, and which makes its imperious demand that 
absolute unity shall stand at the fountain-head of being. 
It has never been able to rest in an Ultimate which was 
not an Absolute — that is, a unity which by its very idea 
and conception is the negation of all plurality and muta- 
bility ; a unity which is unconditioned, and yet which 

1 "Philosophy begins in wonder: he was not a had genealogist who said 
that Isis, the messenger of Heaven, is the child of Thaumas (Wonder) : for 
"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher." — Plato, "Thecetetus," § 155. 



24 THE THE J STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

conditions all ; an " eternal constancy," the voluntary cause 
of all genesis and all change. 1 It is a law of reason, under 
which alone it can maintain its integrity, that the First 
Cause must be one, and not many. An absolute cause 
must be one in order to be absolute ; two absolutes is a 
contradiction. With more or less clearness, men in all 
ages have apprehended that "the First Princvple must 
be one or nothing P 

This is tacitly conceded in all modern systems of 
thought. Biichner, the materialist ; Spencer, the dynam- 
ist; Hegel, the idealist; Cousin and Coleridge, the spirit- 
ualists, know no divergence here. Atheism, Pantheism, 
and Theism alike commence with unity at the fountain- 
head of being — a unity which is incomposite, absolutely 
continuous, every where present and eternal. Every sys- 
tem of philosophy is essentially an effort to show how 
the* universe that now is has been originated by, or 
evolved out of, or has emanated from, a First Principle, 
an absolute Unity. To determine whether this absolute 
First Principle can be known, and, if known, how con- 
ceived and expressed aright, is the ultimate problem of 
all philosophy and all religion. 

All the answers which have been given, and, indeed, 
all which can be conceived, are contained in the follow- 
ing four propositions : 

1. In the beginning was matter — matter as the orig- 
inal substance or substratum, with its inherent, essential, 
and necessary attribute of force ; this alone is eternal and 
infinite. "No force without matter — no matter without 
force." "Matter and its immanent force is immortal 
and indestructible." "The world is unlimited and in- 
finite." 2 Matter, with its primary forces of attraction and 

1 Plato, "Timceus," § 9. 2 Biichner, "Matter and Force," pp. 1-27. 



THE PROBLEM STATED. 25 

repulsion, cohesion and affinity, is fully adequate to the 
explanation of all the phenomena of the universe, phys- 
ical, vital, and mental. 

2. In the begin?iing was force — force homogeneous but 
unstable, and necessarily tending to differentiation and 
heterogeneity; splitting into opposites, standing off into 
polarities, ramifying into attractions and repulsions, light, 
heat, magnetism, and electricity ; and mounting up through 
the stages of physical, vital, and neural to the mental life 
itself, with all its varied and endless phenomena, as re- 
vealed in the languages, laws, institutions, arts, sciences, 
and religions of the world. Force is " the ultimate of all 
ultimates," the "Absolute Reality," the "Unconditioned 
Cause." 1 

3. In the beginning was thought — thought as an eter- 
nal process of self -manifestation and self- actualization, 
which in its necessary evolution reveals itself as force, 
and expresses itself in the varied types of existence and 
laws of phenomena, natural and spiritual. " The Abso- 
lute Idea" as a perpetual process, an eternal thinking, is 
the supreme principle of all reality. "The idea of the 
Absolute Spirit comprehends the entire wealth of the 
natural and the spiritual world ; it is the only substance 
and truth of this wealth, and nothing is true and real ex- 
cept so far as it forms an element of its being." 2 

4. In the beginning was will — an unconditioned Will 
as the indivisible unity and perpetual differentiation of 
Reason and Power and Love. This Unconditioned Will 
is the causative principle of all Eeality, all Efficiency, and 
all Perfection — a causative principle containing, prede- 
termining, and producing all the manifold forms and re- 

1 Spencer, "First Principles," pp. 235, 236. 

2 Hegel, "Philosophy of Religion," vol. i. p. 201. 



26 THE TIIEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

lations, forces and laws of the universe in reference to a 
final purpose. This Absolute First Cause is a living per- 
sonal Being, " from whom, in whom, and to whom are all 
things." 1 

The first and second of these propositions coalesce with 
the creed of Atheism, the third with the creed of Panthe- 
ism, the fourth is the creed of Theism, and, as we hope 
to prove in subsequent chapters, the only rational and ad- 
equate explanation of the facts of the universe. 

1 " Spiritual Philosophy of Coleridge," by Green, vol. i. pp. 1, 2. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 27 



CHAPTEE II. 

GOD THE CEEATOE. 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." — Gen. i. 1. 

"God that made the world and all things therein. ... He is Lord of 
ljeaven and earth." — Acts xvii. 24. 

" The Eternal Will is the creator of the world as He is the creator of the 
finite reason." — Eichte. 

God is the first principle, the unconditioned cause of 
all existence. This is the answer of Christian doctrine to 
the great problem presented for solution in the preced- 
ing chapter. Whether this fundamental presupposition 
shall be finally accepted as the only adequate solution of 
the problem of existence will depend in a large degree 
upon our apprehension of the Christian idea of God. We 
shall, therefore, open the discussion by asking the ques- 
tion — What is the content of our conception of God ? 

Dogmatic theology might rest satisfied with the simple 
affirmation, " God is God," ' as against all the captious de- 
mands of science, were it not necessary to render an ac- 
count to itself of what, at first sight, might be pronounced 
a " sublime tautology." For, while it is hereby confessed 
that God in his essential being is incomprehensible and 
ineffable, so that to the Christian as w r ell as to the philos- 
opher He is " the great Unknown," still it is not hereby 
admitted that it is absolutely impossible to know God. 
To affirm that God is absolutely "the Unknowable" is 
simply to assert his unreality. Mr. Martineau has finely 

1 Isaiah xliii. 13 ; Exod. iii. 14 : "I am that I am." 



28 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

observed that this term is self-contradictory ; for we af- 
firm by the use of it that we know so much that He can 
not be known. Nay, it assumes the existence of God, and 
in the same breath separates us from Him forever. But 
if it be admitted that God is, it can not be absolutely im- 
possible to know what He is. The knowledge of exist- 
ence and the form of existence mutually condition each 
other. There must be something in the understanding 
answering to the term in the language of mankind, and 
there must be something in the realm of being which is 
the ground of the idea in the reason of Man. The hea- 
then have a presentiment, a dim intuition of the "un- 
known God," and the inspired teacher may so "declare 
Him" in human language that his hearers may receive 
a definite notion, and attain to a practical knowledge of 
God. 

The idea of God is a common phenomenon of the uni- 
versal intelligence of our race, and must have been pres- 
ent to the thought of man even before he uttered the 
name of God. 1 The moment man becomes conscious of 
himself, and knows himself as distinct from the world, 
that same moment he becomes conscious of a Higher 
Self— sl living Power upon which both himself and the 
world depend. For this Higher Self all nations have 
found a name. All languages have a term cognate with 
the Saxon " God," which expresses that spontaneous con- 
sciousness of a supernatural power which is common to 
all minds — that intuition of a supramundane existence 

1 " We can see the sun, Ave can greet it in the morning and mourn for it 
in the evening, without necessarily naming it, that is to say, comprehending 
it under some general notion. It is the same with the perception of the 
Divine. It may have been perceived, men may have welcomed it or yearn- 
ed after it, long before they knew how to name it." — Max Miiller, "Science 
of Language," 2d Series, p. 454. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 29 

which is the ground and reason of all other existence. 
Even Polytheism has a name for the abstract of all the 
gods, which sets forth the ideas of being, power, causality, 
and personality. And in Christian lands the term God, 
without any periphrasis, at once represents the idea of a 
Being distinct from self and the world, who is the Maker 
of the world and the Father of humanity. For all prac- 
tical ends it is enough to say God is God. It is only 
when reflective thought seeks to express some more spe- 
cific and determinate conception of the Supreme Being 
that we find ourselves under the necessity of adding other 
expletives to this term God. 

It is therefore desirable that we should set down, in a 
provisional form, the general conception of God as it ex- 
ists in the mind of the Theist and the Christian. I can 
not do this better than by selecting from the writings of 
three men of diverse schools of thought — one a Physicist, 
another a Metaphysician, the third a Theologian ; and all 
in a greater or less degree influenced by the teaching of 
the Christian Scriptures. 

My first selection will be from the " Meditations " of 
Descartes, who is regarded as " the father of modern phi- 
losophy." " By the name of God," says he, " I mean an 
infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, omniscient, om- 
nipresent substance, by which I and all other things which 
are have been created and produced." l 

My second selection is from the "Principia" of Sir Isaac 
Xewton, a work which, by the general consent of the sci- 
entific world, is the" greatest contribution ever made to 
science. Sir Isaac Newton was a Physicist rather than a 
Metaphysician ; he will therefore represent to us the con- 
ception of God entertained by the scientific Theist. At 

1 "Meditations," vol. i. p. 313. 



30 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the close of this his great work he writes : " The true God 
is a living, intelligent, powerful Being, and, from His oth- 
er perfections, it follows that He is Supreme, or most per- 
fect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omnis- 
cient ; that is, His duration reaches from eternity to eter- 
nity, His presence from infinity to infinity. He governs 
all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. 
He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite. 
He is not duration or space, but He endures and is pres- 
ent. He endures forever, and He is every where present ; 
and by existing always and every where, He constitutes [or 
causes] duration and space. Since every particle of space 
is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is ev- 
ery where, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things can 
not be never and nowhere. . . . God is the same God, al- 
ways and every where. He is omnipresent, not virtually 
[potentially] only, but also substantially; for virtue can 
not subsist without substance. In Him all things are con- 
tained and moved, yet neither affects the other. God 
suffers nothing from the motion of bodies ; bodies find no 
resistance from the omnipresence of God. It is allowed 
by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily ; and by 
the same necessity exists always and every where. . . . We 
know Him only by His most wise and excellent contriv- 
ances of things and final causes; we admire Him for His 
perfections ; but we reverence and adore Him on account 
of His dominion. A God without dominion, providence, 
and final causes is nothing else but Fate and Nature. 
Blind mechanical necessity, which is certainly the same 
always and every where, could produce no variety of things. 
All that diversity of natural things which we find suited 
to different times and places could arise from nothing but 
the ideas and will of a Being necessarily existing." 



GOD THE CREATOR. 31 

My last selection is from the " Grammar of Assent," by 
John Henry Newman, formerly a Protestant, now a Cath- 
olic divine. Prior to his change of theological position 
he published a remarkable work " On the Development of 
Christian Doctrine in Aid of a Grammar of Assent," 
the design of which is to exhibit the influence of philo- 
sophic thought upon the evolution of Christian doctrine, 
and to bring it into harmony with the theories of Cos- 
mical, Physiological, and Historical development, which 
seem for the present to 'be in the ascendant. For this 
reason I choose to employ his words, as setting forth the 
conception of God which is generally entertained by 
thoughtful men. At page ninety-seven of his last work, 
" The Grammar of Assent," I read : 

" There is one God, such and such in Nature and At- 
tributes. I say ' such and such,' for, unless I explain 
what I mean by one God, I use words which may mean 
any thing or nothing. I may mean a mere anima 
mundi ; or an initial principle which once was in action 
and now is not ; or collective humanity. I speak then of 
the one God of the Theist and of the Christian: a. God 
who is numerically One, who is Personal; the Author, 
Sustainer, and Finisher of all things, the Life of Law and 
Order, the moral Governor. One who is Supreme and 
Sole; like Himself, unlike all things besides Himself, 
which all are but his creatures ; distinct from, independ- 
ent of, them all. One who is self-existing, absolutely in- 
finite, who has ever been and ever will be, to whom noth- 
ing is past or future ; who is all perfection, and the full- 
ness and archetype of every possible excellence, the Truth 
itself, Wisdom, Love, Justice, Holiness ; One who is All- 
powerful, All - knowing, Omnipresent, Incomprehensible. 
These are some of the distinctive prerogatives which I 



32 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ascribe unconditionally and unreservedly to the great 
Being whom I call God." 

These statements of the Theistic conception will be re- 
garded by most men as adequate and satisfactory. They 
will be accepted by the scientific Theist and approved by 
the dogmatic Theologian. They present the idea of God 
within the sphere of Christian thought ; that is, reflective 
thought informed and illuminated "by the revelations of 
God which are given in the Christian Scriptures. At the 
same time it must be confessed that they are defective 
in scientific form, philosophical development, and logical 
articulation. They do not present the conception of God* 
in harmony with any principles of Rational Integration. 
They show no attempt to combine the various elements 
of this conception in the unity of an Absolute Princi- 
ple, an Ultimate and Fundamental Idea. 

The aim of all true philosophy is to attain to the in- 
sight of First Principles, yea, to the insight of the Abso- 
lute First Principle from which whatever now is must be 
derived, and in which whatever is must have its intelli- 
gible ground and sufficient reason. There exists in man, 
as the essential characteristic of his humanity, a power 
or faculty of intelligence, best named the Reason, which 
awakens in him the desire and furnishes to him the law 
that enables him to fulfill the inherent desire of com- 
bining all his manifold knowledges in the unity of such 
Absolute First Principle ; and the one fundamental law 
of this faculty is the Law of Sufficient Reason, which 
has been thus enounced by Leibnitz : " Whatever exists, or 
begins to be, must have a sufficient reason for its exist- 
ence, and why it is as it is, and not otherwise ;" or, to give 
the principle a fuller, and at the same time a legitimate 
expansion — For all genesis, or beginning, there must be an 



GOD THE CREATOR. 33 

adequate Cause ; beneath all appearance, all changeful and 
fleeting- phenomena, there must be a permanent Being or 
Reality ; beyond all the diverse and manifold, there must 
be an ultimate Identity, an incomposite indivisible Unity ; 
and in all order and special adaptation, there must be a 
unifying Thought, a definite Purpose and End. 

The Reason of man can find satisfaction and harmony 
only in the recognition of an Absolute First Principle 
which shall comprehend and unite all these universal and 
necessary ideas which are the correlates of the facts of ex- 
perience ; that is, an Absolute First Principle which shall 
be the Ultimate Reality, the Ultimate Cause, the Ultimate 
Unity, and the Ultimate Reason of all existence. In other 
words, the Reason is not and can not be satisfied without 
" the clear insight of a Causative Princijjle containing, 
predetermining, and producing all the actual results we 
see around us, with their orderly relations in reference to 
a final purpose, reason, or end ; and which causative prin- 
ciple exists not only as the originative and constructive, 
but also as the conservative energy of all things;" a Be- 
ing who " is before all things, and by whom all things con- 
sist," " from whom, in whom, and to whom are all things." 

And now what is this Absolute First Principle, causa- 
tive of all existence, which the spontaneous reason has 
always intuitively apprehended, and which the reflective 
reason has always found to be the adequate, and only 
adequate explanation of the universe % I answer in a 
word, it is an unconditioned will or self - directive 

POWER, SEEING ITS OWN WAY, AND HAVING THE REASON AND 

law of its action in itself alone. This always and ev- 
ery where has been intuitively apprehended, with more or 
less clearness, as standing at the fountain-head of all ex- 
istence. 

C 



34 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

This, then, we shall postulate as the fundamental axiom 
of all rational integration, viz., an unconditioned will, 
the principle of all Reality, all Efficiency y and all Per- 
fection. 

1. An unconditioned Will which realizes itself in ipseity 
— self -potency and self-affirmation ; expresses itself in that 
august name of God " i am ;" and constitutes absolute 

REALITY. 

2. An unconditioned Will which manifests itself in al- 
teritt — pluri-efficiency ; utters itself in the " i will " of 
the creative fiat ; and constitutes infinite efficiency. 

3. An unconditioned Will which returns to itself in to- 
tality — a complete Ideal to be realized in Creation ; which 
expresses its satisfaction in pronouncing all things " very 
good," and constitutes perfect personality. 

The changeless correlation and inherent harmony of 
these ideas of the reason (Reality, Efficiency, and Per- 
sonality) may be rendered more obvious by the fol- 
lowing formula, after the method of Coleridge's " polar 
logic." l 

PROTHESIS 
UNCONDITIONED WILL 

T 

MESOTHESIS ANTITHESIS 

I 

IPSEITY— — Efficient CAUSALITY Efficient ALTEBITY 





TOTALITY 

SYNTHESIS 



Prothesis expresses the absolute identity or eternal co- 
inherence of Reason, Love, and Power (the Divine Es- 

1 "Works," vol. i. p. 218 ; vol. v. p. 18; Hamilton's "Philosophy," p. 
176 ; Murphy's " Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 130. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 35 

sence). Thesis expresses Power in the form of Love (the 
Divine Self-sufficiency and Self -potency). Antithesis ex- 
presses Reason in the form of Power (the Divine Effi- 
ciency). Synthesis expresses the diversity in unity of 
Reason, Love, and Power (the Divine Perfection). And 
Mesothesis expresses the essential correlations which in- 
tegrate the whole (the Tri unity of the manifested God). 
Thus Ahsolute Reality, Infinite Efficiency, and Perfect 
Personality are all, as a triplicity, contained in the funda- 
mental unity of an unconditioned Will, which has Love 
as its motive, Power as its, agent, and Reason as its light 
and law. 

And now let ns retire within our own consciousness, and 
see if this fundamental axiom of rational integration — 
Will as the principle of all Reality, Efficiency, and Per- 
fection — is not reflected in our reason, and evolved in our 
inner experience. Do we not find that the central point 
of our consciousness — that which makes each man what 
he is in contradistinction from every other man — that 
which expresses the real essence of the soid apart from 
its formal processes and regulative laws — is the will? 
Without Will man would fall back from the elevation 
which he now assumes to the level of impersonal nature : 
in a word, he would be a thing, and not a power. Power, 
spontaneity, causality, will — these, or similar forms, ex- 
press, as nearly as can be, the essential nature or principle 
of the human soul. 1 Furthermore, it is obvious that mere 
Power or Energy does not suffice for the notion of Will — 
there must also be Reason and Affection. 2 Indeed," Will 
is contemplated universally as the inseparable union and 
perpetual differentiation of Intelligence and originative 

1 Morell, " Philosophy of Beligion," p. 3. 

2 Muller, " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. p. 28. 



36 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OE THE WORLD. 

Power, and as such the sole ground of the intelligibility 
of all causation." l 

A volitional act, a moral and responsible act, must be 
one which is performed under the influence of motives, 
and for which, when called to account, we can assign 
valid reasons. All true volition supposes a purpose or 
end to be realized, an inward appetency or motive which 
makes the end desirable, and the selection and adaptation 
of means to accomplish that end. Power divorced from 
reason is simply blind force, and can not be dignified with 
the name of Will. The mind .of man is sometimes in a 
predominant state of knowing, sometimes in a predominant 
state of feeling, and sometimes in a predominant state of 
determination. To call these separate faculties, however, 
is altogether beside the mark. ISTo act of intelligence can 
be performed without some determination of the Ego, no 
act of determination without some cognition, and no act 
of the one or the other without some amount of feeling 
being mingled in the process. Thus, while each mental 
state may have its distinctive characteristics, there is uni- 
ty at the root— the identical Ego, spirit, will. 2 

Sensibility is the condition, Keason is the light, Will is 
the centre of human consciousness. Consciousness is a 
threefold phenomenon in which feeling, knowing, and 
self-determination are reciprocal elements, and in their 
connection and simultaneousness, and at the same time 
their differentiation, they compose the entire intellectual 
life. 3 The finite spirit or will unfolds itself, first, sub- 
jectively, in the spontaneous affirmation of self-being or 
self-potency (ipseity) ; secondly, objectively, in the exer- 

1 Green, " Spiritual Philosophy," vol. i. p. 2. 

2 Morell, " Psychology," p. 61. 

3 Cousin, " Elements of Psychology," p. 452. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 37 

tion of power to produce motion, change, phenomena (ef- 
ficiency) ; thirdly, synthetically, in the unity of motive 
and intention, purpose and act, means and end (person- 
ality). 

Thus does ""Will present the middle point, which em- 
braces thought on the one hand &i\dfo?'ce on the other; 
and which yet, so far from appearing to us to be a com- 
pound arising out of them as an effect, is more easily con- 
ceived as the originative prefix (prothesis) of all mental 
phenomena. ... It carries with it, in its very idea, the 
co-presence of thought as the necessary element within 
whose sphere it has to manifest itself ; its phenomena can 
not exist alone ; it acts on preconceptions, which stand re- 
lated to it, not however as its source, but as its conditions, 
and are its co-ordinates in the effect, rather than its gener- 
ating antecedents." 1 

Psychological analysis leads us inevitably to this con- 
clusion, that all things are issued by Will, whether in the 
sphere of the finite or the infinite, and therefore we postu- 
late an unconditioned will, a perfect mind, at the source 
of all becoming. Thus, as Martineau truly remarks, be- 
tween the force of the physical atheist and the thought 
of the metaphysical pantheist, ive fix upon will as the 
true balancing-point of a moral theism. 

The intelligent reader scarce needs to be reminded 
that this is the conclusion reached by reflective thought 
in that best and fullest exhibition of it which is found in 
Greek philosophy. The great problem of Greek philos- 
ophy, as of all philosophy, was, " What is the apx% tne 
First Principle — the ground and cause and reason of all 
existence?" The final answer of that age is found in 
Plato, for Platonism was the culmination, the ripened 

1 Manineau's "Essays," p. 188, 2d Series. 



38 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

fruit of the ages of earnest thought which preceded Plato. 
He gathered up, co-ordinated, and grasped into unity the 
results bequeathed by the mental efforts of his predeces- 
sors. The Platonic answer to this great question of phi- 
losophy is clear and unequivocal. A perfect mind is the 
primal source of all being — a Mind in which Intellect, 
Efficiency, and Goodness are one and identical. "Mind 
is the most worthy apyj)." " God is the most excellent of 
causes." ' " Mind is king of heaven and earth." 2 " Mo- 
tion and life and soul and mind are present with absolute 
being. We can not imagine being to be devoid of life 
and mind, remaining in awful unmeaningness and ever- 
lasting fixture." 3 

"Whatever begins to be, must necessarily be produced 
by some cause ; for nothing can have its generation with- 
out a cause." " The Maker and Father of the universe 
. . . had no beginning- of his being." He formed the 
universe according to the eternal model or archetype 
which his own reason supplied, and for motives which his 
own essential goodness proposed. "Let us now tell for 
what cause the Maker of this creation and this universe 
made it as it is. He was good ; and he who is good 
grudges no advantage to any creature. Being thus free 
from envy, He willed that the universe should be good 
like Himself ; and this, the special ground of the creation 
and the world, which we receive from the wisest philos- 
ophers, we must accept." 4 

It would be easy to show that the recognition of intel- 
ligent Will, as standing at the fountain-head of all the 
force which is manifested in the universe, is common to 
the first Physicists of this age. 

1 " Timseus," ch. ix. 3 "Sophist," § 72. 

2 "Philebus," § 50. * "Timteus," ch. ix. x. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 39 

Grove concludes his admirable essay on "The Correla- 
tion of the Physical Forces " with these words : " In all 
phenomena the more closely they are investigated the 
more are we convinced that, humanly speaking, neither 
matter nor force can be created or annihilated, and that 
an essential cause is unattainable [by science] — Causa- 
tion is the will, Creation is the act, of God" 1 Sir John 
Herschel has not hesitated to express his conviction that 
" it is but reasonable to regard the Force of Gravitation 
as the direct or indirect result of a consciousness or a 
will existing somewhere." 2 Dr. Carpenter, with his usual 
sagacity in penetrating to the essential point, remarks that 
the will u is that form of Force which must be taken 
as the type of all the rest ;" " Force must be regarded as 
the direct expression of will." 3 " If," says Wallace, " we 
have traced one force, however minute, to an origin in 
our own will, while we have no knowledge of any other 
primary cause of force, it does not seem an improbable 
conclusion that all force may be will-foece, and thus the 
whole universe is not only dependent on, but actually js 
the will of higher intelligences or of one Supreme Intel- 
ligence." 4 In short, the present attitude of science in re- 
lation to this great problem is, I think, fairly represented 
by the Duke of Argyll : " Science, in the modern doc- 
trine of the Conservation of Energy and the Convertibil- 
ity of Forces, is already getting hold of the idea that all 
kinds of Force are but forms and manifestations of some 

1 "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 199. 

2 "Outlines of Astronomy," pp. 233-4; also "Familiar Lectures on Sci- 
entific Subjects," pp. 462, 475. 

3 " Human Physiology," p. 542 ; also art. " On Mutual Relation of Vital 
and Physical Forces," Philosophical Transactions, p. 730. 

4 "Natural Selection," p. 368. See Mivart, "Genesis of Species," p. 
298 ; Laycock, " Mind and Brain," vol. i. pp. 225, 304 ; Murphy, " Scien- 
tific Basis of Faith,' - p. 51. 



40 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OE THE WORLD. 

one Central Force issuing from some one Fountain-head 
of Power." " This one Force, into which all others return 
again, is itself but a mode of action of the Divine Will." 1 
Even Spencer concedes that "the Force by which we our- 
selves produce changes, and which serves to symbolize the 
cause of changes in general, is the final disclosure of all 
analysis . . . all other modes of consciousness are de- 
rived from our consciousness of exerting Force." 2 "The 
order of nature is doubtless very imperfect, but its pro- 
duction is far more compatible with the hypothesis of an 
intelligent will than with that of blind mechanism." 3 
Physical science is surely coming into harmony with met- 
aphysical thought. It looks upon nature with the eye of 
reason as well as the eye of sense. And it reduces the 
phenomena to unity, not simply by comparative abstrac- 
tion, which classifies under resemblance, co-existence, and 
succession, but by that rational integration which operates 
under the necessary laws of substance, causality, intention- 
ality, and absolute unity. It regards the forces of nature 
as the product or manifestation of a higher force — a force 
which is not merely dynamical in its nature — a force 
which can compass not merely concurrent and antagonist- 
ic motions in space, but which is able so to adjust these 
concurrences and antagonisms as to construct agencies 
which shall realize designs — a force, therefore, which is 
thoughtful and percipient: in one word, intelligent — a 
force, in fine, which is not a mere mechanical dynamism 
in space and time, but a true Power existing in its type 
and fullness : in one word — God. 4 

1 " Reign of Law," pp. 123, 129 ; Cooke, " Religion and Chemistry, "p. 340. 

2 "First Principles," p. 235. See also Challis, "Principles of Mathe- 
matics and Physics," p. 081. 

3 Comte, "L'Ensemble du Positivisme," p. 46. 

4 M 'Vicar, "Sketch of Philosophy," p. 8. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 41 

Thus does all reflective thought, whether directed to 
the phenomena of the human mind or the phenomena of 
nature, confirm the a priori intuition of an unconditioned 
Will unfolding itself in Thought and Power, and com- 
pleting itself in a harmonious Totality, as the First Prin- 
ciple and Originative Cause of all existences and of all 
relations, of all individual beings, and of that harmonious 
whole men call the Cosmos. 

And now we pass to the important question — How are 
we to bring all our acquired conceptions of God into har- 
, mony with this fundamental idea? Assuming that we 
have certain conceptions of God which are derived from 
verbal instruction, and ultimately from Divine revelation, 
can we bring these into unity under this First Principle ? 
Or, in other words, can we logically evolve the attributes 
and perfections of God out of this fundamental Idea, 
and find the result in harmony with the Christian doc- 
trine ? 

As the object of thought, even of Christian thought, 
God must necessarily be conceived by us under the fun- 
damental categories of Being, Attribute, and Relation. 
All objects of thought must come under these categories, 
and out of or beyond these categories we can not think at 
all. Furthermore, we can not think of God as the uncon- 
ditioned Being conditioning Himself, without conceiving 
Him as Reality, Efficiency, and Personality. These con- 
stitute the conception of the Divine essence whereby it is 
what it is. When we think of the Attributes of such a 
Being, we must necessarily conceive them as Absolute, 
Infinite, and Perfect? And when we think of the Re- 

1 These terras are frequently and somewhat loosely employed as synony- 
mous ; but in reality each has its own peculiar shade of meaning. Here wc 
employ the term Absolute to denote the underived, independent, incomposite, 



42 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

lations of God to finite existences and finite consciousness, 
we are constrained to regard Him as the Ground and 
Cause and Reason of all dependent being. 

In the unity and completeness of this categorical scheme 
of thought, we can not fail to recognize the following log- 
ical order : 

Being (Essentia) reality j efficiency} personality} 

Attribute (Related Essence) absolute) infinite j perfect ) 
Relation (Free Determination) ground cause reason or end 

In the Absolute Keality we have the ultimate ground ; in 
the Infinite 'Efficiency we have the adequate cause ; and 
in the Perfect Personality w T e have the sufficient reason 
or final cause of all existence. 

1. Being or Essence, as Reality, Efficiency, and Per- 
sonality. The intuition of Being is the most fundament- 
al and the most abstract of all ideas. After every prop- 
erty and relation has been eliminated, there still remains 
the affirmation that something is. ^Non-existence, except 
as the negation of being, is inconceivable. But, at the 
same time, pure being is the most indeterminate of all 
ideas. Simple being, without attributes, and out of all re- 
lation to other ideas, is a notion without contents, and con- 
sequently indescribable and unknowable. For us, there- 
fore, pure abstract being is equal to non-being, and the 
paradox of Hegel has some truth : Pure Being = Noth- 
ing. Distinction — differentiation, determination — is the 

and immutable. Infinite is employed to denote the absence of all limita- 
tion — that which can not be bounded, measured, quantified. Perfect is em- 
ployed to denote that which is complete, finished, self-sufficient — that whicli 
has no defect and no want. The unconditioned is a genus, of which the In- 
finite, Absolute, and Perfect are species — not conditioned by quantity, kind, 
or degree. For the Infinite there are no limits ; for the Absolute no parts, 
no equals, and no change; for the Perfect no wants. See Calderwood, 
"Philosophy of the Infinite,'' p. 179 ; North American Review, Oct. 1864, 
pp. 407, 417. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 43 

condition of all reality. Real being must be determined, 
only pure nothing can be undetermined. The least de- 
termined being is the least real; the most determined is 
the most real, the most perfect being. Exactly in propor- 
tion as the nature of beings is differentiated and compli- 
cated do they rise in the scale of being. The vegetable 
has more determinations than inanimate matter; the per- 
cipient animal has more determinations than the vital 
plant; rational man has more determinations than the 
percipient animal, he is the most complicated, the most 
determined, and therefore the most perfect being in crea- 
tion. An absolutely perfect being must be the most de- 
termined of all beings; he must contain within himself 
a fullness of determinations. 

The pantheist Spinoza tells us that determination is ne- 
gation — that is, limitation. " Ommis determinaiio negatio 
est." ]S"o thing can be falser or more arbitrary than this 
principle. Its fallacy consists in the confusion of two 
things essentially different, namely, the limits of a oeing, 
and its determinate characteristics. A pure Ego, by de- 
termining itself to thought, affection, or action, is not there- 
by limited. The limitation or the illiinitation depends 
simply upon the character of the thought, affection, or act 
as perfect or imperfect. " I am an intelligent being, and 
my intelligence is limited ; these are two facts equally 
certain. The possession of intelligence is the constitutive 
characteristic of my being which distinguishes me from 
the brute. The limitation imposed upon my intellect, 
which can only see a small number of truths at a time, is 
my limit, and this is what distinguishes me from the Ab- 
solute Being, from Perfect Intelligence which sees all 
truths at a glance. That which constitutes my imperfec- 
tion is not certainly my being intelligent ; therein, on the 



44: THE THEIST1C CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

contrary, lies the strength, the richness, and the dignity of 
my being. What constitutes my weakness and my noth- 
ingness is that this intelligence is inclosed in a narrow 
circle. Thus, inasmuch as I am intelligent, I participate 
in being and perfection ; inasmuch as I am only intelli- 
gent within certain limits, I am imperfect." 1 Determina- 
tion differs from limitation as much as being differs from 
nothing. 

The Causative Principle of all reality must itself be 
real, that is, it must be a self -manifesting and self-con- 
scious power, for there can be no reality without conscious- 
ness. Being which is not known to itself, and can not 
manifest itself, is as though it were not. Intuition, sui 
conscia, is the essence of reality. Here being and know- 
ing are identical. It must also contain within itself a 
fullness of determinations, must be rich in ideas, must be 
the archetype of all possible existences. ^ All forms and 
relations, all ideas and laws, all individual and special 
adaptations, all harmonious systems, must be present to 
the Absolute Eeality. " Uncreated must be Mental Be- 
ing. This seems an invincible necessity of all thought. 
Whatever else, or whatever more it is, it must be Mental 
Being " = reason. 

The Causative Principle of all efficiency must itself be 
power, pluri-efficiency, it must be self-determined and 
self-moved, and perfectly adequate to the production of 
being, motion, change, life, and intelligence objective to 
itself ; in a word, it must be adequate to the realization 
of all the ideals which reason supplies ; it must be un- 
limited Infinite Efficiency = spirit. 

The Causative Principle of all personality must itself 
he personal — that is, it must have a self-conceived, self-de- 

1 Saisset, "Modern Pantheism," vol. ii. p. 70. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 45 

termined purpose ; must freely choose and wisely adapt 
the means to realize that purpose ; above all, it must have 
a worthy motive, a best aud highest reason for both pur- 
pose and act ; and must make all conform to and result 
in a moral order in harmony with the blessedness and 
worthy the approbation of the All-perfect One. Intui- 
tion and choice, affection and conscience — these are the 
grand momenta of personality. 

The necessary demand of reason is that the first and 
originative cause of all Unite personality shall be Himself 
a person. Consciousness can not arise out of unconscious- 
ness, reason can not be generated from unreason, person- 
ality can not have its birth from impersonality, no more 
than something can be born of nothing. There must be 
intelligence answering to our intelligence, freedom an- 
swering to our freedom, feeling responding to our feel- 
ing, and moral sentiment unisonant with our moral sen- 
timent : in short, personality correlated with our person- 
ality, in the cause and author of finite responsible be- 
ing. That perfection which is mirrored in our finite per- 
sonality exists in all its fullness in the unconditionally 
perfect Being, the Perfect Personality whose name is 
love. 1 

God, then, is the Absolute, Infinite, and Perfect Being 
in whom, by whom, and for whom the finite has existence 
and consciousness. He is the unconditioned, condition- 
ating Will. The Divine Essence can not be apprehend- 
ed or expressed in a higher universal. This is the first 
dim intuition of spontaneous reason, and the final goal of 

1 "The idea of God is the unity of three factors — the logical (intelli- 
gence), the ethical (love), and the physical (might)." — Dr. Martensen, "Die 
Christliche Ethik," § 19. 



46 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

all reflective thought. The Divine Being is He who is 
before all, and who originates, destines, and conditions 
all. The Biblical idea of the unconditioned Being is in 
perfect harmony with the philosophical idea. In the lan- 
guage of Scripture, " the Will of God" stands for the re- 
motest, inmost essence of the Godhead — a will which is 
the absolute identity, the eternal co-inherence of reason, 
power, and love. The Divine Will as efficient cause is 
never dissociated from the Divine Will as the formal 
cause and the final cause. That will is at once cause 
and law and reason of all things. God " effectuates all 
things according to the counsel (rr)v (5ov\yjv = deliberation, 
purpose, design) of his own Will " (Eph. i. 11). And not 
only according to the counsel, but " according to the good 
pleasure {r\)v £v<$otciav = the benevolent affection) of his 
own will" (ver. 5) ; a "good pleasure which He hath pur- 
posed (irpoiOero) in Himself (ver. 9). He " created all 
things, and for his own pleasure (fls'Aijjua = will) they are 
and were created." Here " Will " is clearly more than 
power, more than efficiency : it is thought or purpose ; it 
is reason or end ; in a word, it is the identity and co-in- 
herence of reason, power, and love. The unconditioned 
Will as revealed to us in Scripture is an intelligent Will 
— a will that thinks, deliberates, counsels, designs ; and it 
is also a benevolent Will — a will that loves and delights 
in and desires the good of being. And in thinking and 
desiring it effectuates, for thinking and operating, desir- 
ing and doing, are one with God. " He speaks and it is 
done, He commands and it stands fast." Creation is a 
speech of God, a language in which He reveals his 
thoughts, his purposes, his benevolent designs, his will 
— that is, Himself. Every revelation of God is the de- 
velopment in us of the consciousness of the real being 



GOD THE CREATOR. 47 

(ro ovtioq 6v). All the proofs of the being of God — the 
etiological, the cosmological, the teleological, and the 
moral — are centred in the ontological : this is first and 
last. And jnst as our consciousness of the indivisible 
identical ego as the unity and co-inherence of reason, 
feeling, and power is the exact arresting -point of psy- 
chological science, beyond which thought can not pass, 
so our intuition of the unconditioned being as the abso- 
lute identity of Reason, Power, and Love is the exact 
arresting point of Theological science, beyond which 
nothing can be known. Spirit, Light, Love — these des- 
ignate essence or being. "God is spirit" {irvevjia — Spir- 
it, not a Spirit — John iv. 24), the self-moving, efficient, 
animating principle, the unity and life-motion of the 
creative divine activity ; 77 £w?) alwviog — vita absoluta — 
underived, eternal Life (John v. 26 ; xi. 25 ; 1 John v. 
20). God is light (1 John i. 5), the self-manifesting, in- 
tuitional, revealing principle = 6 Xoyoe; the Eternal Rea- 
son, in which Spirit becomes objective to itself, and God 
is revealed to Himself (John i. 1 ; 1 Tim. vi. 16). God is 
love (1 John iv. 8, 16), the self -complete, self-sufficient, 
self - satisfying principle = to tsXoq, the Perfect One 
(Matth. v. 48). This Divine Love finds its fullest satis- 
faction in the Koa/aog vorjTog, the intelligible world as re- 
vealed and rendered objective to Himself in " the woed." 
Reason, Spirit, Love are the simplest elements in the con- 
ception of the unconditioned Being : Reason as Reality, 
Spirit as Efficiency, and Love as Perfection. 

The unconditioned Being is revealed, may we not 
say "incarnated," 1 in the Koa/iog alvOriaig — the sensible 
world : 1, by the incarnation of the Spirit in the moving 
and animating forces of nature ; 2, by the incarnation of 

1 Dr. Whedon, Meth. Qu. Review, Jan. 9, 1871, p. 1(54. 



48 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the Reason in the typical forms and permanent laws or 
relations of the universe, by which reality becomes known 
to finite minds ; 3, by the incarnation of Love in the final 
causes, the benevolent purposes, which are realized in the 
completed Cosmos and the life of Humanity. 1 

2. Attribute ok Related Essence. The knowledge 
of the Divine Essence is the root of the knowledge of 
the Divine Attributes, for in every conception of an at- 
tribute the Divine Essence is, in some mode or other, sup- 
posed. We may therefore define an attribute as a con- 
ception of the unconditioned Being under some relation 
to our consciousness. That conception may be either 
positive or negative, and the relation may consequently 
be one of causation or abstraction. 

When we conceive of the Divine Essence as reality, 
our conception is in some measure determined by our 
consciousness of reality. The intuition of reality is im- 
manent to our own consciousness. We know self as a 
reality, an indivisible, identical Ego — a unity, but yet a 
conditioned and dependent reality, which must have its 
ground and cause in an independent and unconditioned 
reality. Thus the pure intuition of reality is a preluding 
for the affirmation of absolute reality. We can not, how- 
ever, affirm such reality on purely subjective grounds. 
To the eye of reason, which is the organ of necessary and 
absolute truth, the Divine Essence abstracts itself from the 
limits of space and time, and absolves itself from all the 
determinations of objective being. It is a reality which is 
not conditioned by kind, a reality which is independent 



1 As related to the purpose of Eedemption. God the Father is the mov- 
ing or actuating cause of Redemption, God the Son is the revealing and act- 
ualizing cause, and God the Spirit is the active and efficient cause. Father 
=Love ; Logos = Re vealer ; Spirit = Life. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 49 

of, absolved from, undetermined by any other antecedent 
or contemporaneous being — absolute reality. 

Furthermore, when we conceive the Divine Essence as 
power or efficiency, our conception is in some measure 
determined by our consciousness of power. We know 
ourselves as a power, a cause of our own volitions, and a 
power which can control and modify external nature, but 
yet a limited and finite cause. To the eye of reason the 
Divine efficiency transcends all limitation and mensura- 
tion. It is a power which is not conditioned by quantity. 
It is limitless power, spaceless, all-mighty presence, self- 
directive power, carrying its own light and seeing its own 
way — infinite efficiency. 

And, finally, when we conceive of the Divine Essence 
as personality, again our conception is in some measure 
determined by our consciousness of personality. We are 
conscious of desiring and purposing, of determining and 
doing, of approving and delighting in oar artistic and 
ethical creations, and in these we stand out from the 
plane of nature as persons and not things. But we are 
also conscious of limitation and imperfection. We fall 
short even of onr own ideals; we feel we have unsatis- 
fied longings and daily wants. The Divine Essence re- 
veals itself to reason as exempt from all limitation by de- 
gree. "Pure personality is no more limited than abso- 
lute being, but it is deeper by all the contents of perfect 
consciousness." It is a personality which has no defect 
and no want : unconditioned, unlimited perfection — per- 
fect personality. 

Our conception of the Attributes of God may thus be 
formed through some relation to our consciousness, but 
by a process of immediate abstraction — the negation of 
all limitation by kind, by quantity, or by degree. . 

D 



50 THE THE IS TIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

1. As related to our intuition of real being ; by abstrac- 
tion, from all other being and personality — the Immanent 
attributes of God. 

2. As causally related to finite, dependent existence ; 
by elimination of all necessary limitation — the Relative 
or Transitive attributes of God. 

3. As ethically related to finite personality; by elim- 
ination of all imperfection — the Moral attributes of 
God. 

1. The immanent attributes. The absolute reality (rea- 
son) must necessarily be conceived as First, Supreme, and 
Sole ; must be im derived, and therefore eternal ; must be 
absolved from all necessary relation to other being, and 
therefore independent ; must be above all law of change, 
and therefore immutable ; must have incomposite nnity, 
and therefore indivisible ; and must be the only one, for 
two absolutes would limit each other, and are thus incon- 
ceivable. Finally, absolute reality must be the fullness 
and archetype of all being in which every form and 
every relation, every totality and every harmony, con- 
ceivable or possible, must be ideally and eternally present. 

Eternity (1 Tim. i. 17; vi. 15, 16; Key, i. 4, 8; Heb. 
i.8). 

Immutability (James i. 17 ; Psalm cii. 26, 27 ; Heb. 
i. 12). 

Unity (Isaiah xliv. 6 ; Eph. iv. 6 ; 1 Tim. ii. 5 ; John 
xvii. 3). 

Ideality (Psalm cxxxix. 16 ; Rom. xi. 36 ; Acts xv. 
18). 

These are the immanent attributes of God. 

2. The transitive or relative attributes. The In- 



GOD THE CREATOR. 51 

finite Efficiency (spirit) must necessarily be conceived as 
all - mighty, all - present, and all - knowing. The Infinite 
Spirit fills, penetrates, moves, and vitalizes the universe. 
He is in all, and through all, and transcends all. He can 
not be bounded in space or limited in power, therefore He 
is spaceless and infinite. " He is every where present, not 
virtually but substantially, for virtue can not subsist with- 
out substance." And as the All-mighty is present every 
where, present to all things, so all things exist " in Him," 
and are present to Him in an immediate and intuitive vis- 
ion — He knows all things. 

Omnipotence (Psalm cxv. 3 ; Jer. xxxii. 27 ; Rom. xi. 36 ; 
1 Cor. viii. 6). 

Ubiquity (Psalm cxxxix. 7-13 ; Jer. xxiii. 23, 24 ; 1 Cor. 
xv. 28 ; Matth. x. 29). 

Omniscience (Psalm cxxxix. 1-6 ; Acts i. 24 ; Heb. iv. 
13; Matth. vi. 8). 

These are the relative or transitive attributes of God. 

3. The moral attributes. Perfect Personality (love) 
must by the very conception be wise and holy, righteous 
and blessed, for these are the attributes of personality, and 
may all be ultimately grounded in love. The reason of 
all existence and all personality is found, not in infinite 
causality, but in the free love of the perfect personality. 
This is the final cause of all existence. And if perfect 
Love be the final cause of all existence, it must know the 
end, and ordain the law and means. The highest end of 
the world is the perfect fellowship of man with God ; the 
physical must therefore be subordinated to the moral or- 
der of the universe. The Perfect Personality must freely 
will to impart his fellowship to those who are obedient to 
his moral law ; and it must be removed from fellowship 



52 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

with and deny itself to evil, which is antagonistic to the 
ends of Love. Or, in other words, it must establish a fix- 
ed and changeless relation between righteousness and 
blessedness in the creature. It must approve the good 
and condemn the evil. And in making the righteous 
"partakers of his joy," He must be " well pleased." The 
absolute blessedness of God is found in the fullness and 
harmony of the Divine life. He has in Himself the eter- 
nal and absolutely worthy object of his love. But there 
is a Divine satisfaction, "a good pleasure of God," which 
is found in the communication of Himself to the creature. 
" He rejoiceth in the habitable parts of the earth, and his 
delights are with the sons of men." " He taketh pleasure 
in them that fear Him, in those that hope in his mercy." 

Wisdom (Job xii. 13 ; Rom. xi. 33, 34 ; Eph. iii. 9, 10). 

Goodness (Psalm xxxiii. 5 ; xxxiv, 8 ; cvii. 1, 8). 

Holiness (Dent, xxxii. 4 ; Psalm v. 5 ; James i. 13, 17). 

Blessedness (1 Tim. i. 11 ; vi. 15). 

These are the moral attributes of God. 1 They are also 
called by pre-eminence the Perfections of God, because 
they are free determinations of the Divine nature, an 
everlasting " becoming," rather than an eternal " being." 
The immanent attributes of God are a necessary inbeing ; 
the moral attributes of God are a voluntary outgoing, an 
eternally free, alternative forth-putting of choice for the 
right and the good. 2 

The doctrine concerning God above presented, in which 

1 The Justice, Truth, and Faithfulness of God are not properly regarded 
as attributes of the Divine nature, but as modes of Divine conduct or action, 
determined by the Holiness and Goodness of God. So Grace, Mercy, Com- 
passion are but modifications of Divine Love viewed in relation to sinful, 
guilty, and suffering creatures, and their consideration belongs not to the 
doctrine of Creation, but of Redemption. 

2 Whedon, "On the Freedom of the Will," p. 310. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 



53 



we fain would hope 'that philosophy and Christian thought 
are brought into harmony, may now be summarily pre- 
sented in the following schema : 



Fundamental Idea of Reason. 
(Essence) 



- as ABSOLUTE REALITY.. 



UNCONDITIONED 
WILL 



OS INFINITE EFFICIENCY. 



Thought- Conceptions 
Founded on Relations. 

r ETERNITY 1 

J immutability I Immanent 
j unity i Attributes. 

L ideality 

{OMNIPOTE 
UBIQUITY 
OMNISCIENCE 



or Causal 
Attributes. 



I as PERFECT PERSONALITY 



f WISDOM 

I 



GOODNESS 
HOLINESS 
i^ BLESSEDNESS 



Moral At- 
tributes 
I (Relational). 

The references to the Sacred Scriptures already giv- 
en will show the harmony between the conceptions of 
reason and the verbal revelations of God. Reason and 
Scripture unite in proclaiming that God is "the great and 
holy One that inhabiteth eternity," who "only hath im- 
mortality," " with whom is no variableness," and who 
"filleth all in all;" to whom "all his works are known 
from eternity," in whose book "all our members were writ- 
ten when as yet there was none of them," and whose 
"purposes," ideas, and plans are "eternal." These - are 
mainly the immanent attributes of God, conceptions which 
flow from the very idea of the Absolute and Infinite Be- 
ing. They are evolved from Real Being by the negation 
of all limit, all parts, all change ; the canceling of time 
and space and matter, the recognition of God as pure 
Reason, pure Spirit, pure Love. 

The Scriptures, however, deal more immediately with 
the causal, transitive, and relational aspects of the Divine 
attributes — that is, with the conception of God in his vol- 



54 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

untary relations to finite being and finite personality. 
They speak of God in his historically known existence, as 
a Being who voluntarily conditions his Omnipotence and 
Sovereignty under concessions of self -reality, self-life, and 
freedom to finite beings, without Himself being condition- 
ed by any thing — a self-limitation which, in nowise de- 
tracts from the absoluteness and infinity of God — an un- 
conditioned conditionating Will. 1 

The relation which God sustains to his works is not a 
necessary relation — it is a voluritary and self-imposed rela- 
tion. Free Love is the highest determining principle for 
the efficiency of Divine Omnipotence. Power thus di- 
rected and conditioned by wisdom and love does not, can 
not detract from the perfection of God. The substitu- 
tion of choice for necessity is, in fact, no real limitation ; 
on the contrary, it ascribes to God the most absolute per- 
fection. 

The causal attributes of God, or those conceptions of 
God which are especially grounded upon his relation to 
the world and humanity, are properly divided into those 
which are Cosmical and those which are Ethical. The 
first, of course, embrace his relation to the world, the sec- 
ond his relation to personal, responsible beings. The con- 
tent of the cosmological conception is Omnipotence, 
Ubiquity, Omniscience. The content of the ethical con- 
ception is Wisdom, Goodness, Holiness, and Blessedness. 
God as the Creator and Sustainer of the world, God as 
the Father, Teacher, and Euler of humanity, are the two 
grand manifestations of the one infinite and perfect Be- 
ing, and " Elohim" and u Je7wva/i" are his expressive and 
distinctive names, the first denoting the cosmical activity 

1 For an exhaustive discussion of this subject, see Miiller, "Christian 
Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. pp. 199-215. 



GOD THE CREATOR. 55 

of God, the latter liis government and kingdom among 
men. 

These two grand aspects of the Divine manifestation 
are marked in the Elohistic and Jehovistic portions of the 
first revelation given to the Semitic race. They are still 
more distinctly recognized in Paul's discourse before the 
assembled Athenian philosophers, where Christian the- 
ology was for the first time presented to the Greek mind 
—God the Creator and Conservator of the world (Acts 
xvii. 24, 25); God the Father, Teacher, Ruler, and Judge 
of humanity (Acts xvii. 26-31). 



56 THE T HEIST IC CONCEPTION OF THE, WORLD. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CKEATION. 

God is the Absolute, Infinite, and Perfect Being, in 
whom, through whom, and for whom are all things. This 
is the Christian conception of God ; and it is the only 
conception which furnishes an adequate and satisfactory 
explanation of all the facts of the universe. Here we 
have a First Principle, an Originative Cause which is suf- 
ficient to account for all existence. 

But what conception are we to form of the nature and 
mode of this Origination ? Was it a pure, supernatural 
Origination, an absolute Creation ? or was it simply a for- 
mation out of a first substance existing coeval with and 
independent of God ? Was that act of creation deter- 
mined by necessity ? was it an unconscious emanation 
from, or a necessary development of that First Princi- 
ple ? Or was it a conscious, free exertion of power 
for the realization of a foreseen and predetermined plan 
— a mental Order? What is the Biblical conception of 
Creation ? This is the question we must now endeavor to 
answer. 

Until very recently it has been the practice of theolo- 
gians to attempt the determination of the Biblical notion 
of Creation on purely philological grounds. It is now 
generally conceded that this method is inadequate and in- 
conclusive. The Greeks probably never conceived the 
idea of an absolute creation (commonly, though we judge 



THE CREATION. 57 

incorrectly, styled creation ex nihilo), and consequently 
the Greek language has no terms expressive of a primal 
origination, an absolute beginning of the world. Ilotuv, 
the term employed in the LXX. (Gen. i. 1), and also by 
St. Paul (Acts xvii. 24), means to endow with a certain 
quality {-oXog — quctlis) — to construct, make, form, build, 
and evidently conveys the notion of formation rather than 
origination, the production of qualitative phenomena 
rather than real entity ; ktl&iv is also ordinarily used in 
the sense of forming, fashioning, building, and seems to 
imply pre-existing materials. 

There is also a wide difference of opinion among Ori- 
ental scholars with respect to the precise import of the 
verbs sia (bara), titeti (aysah), and is? (yetsar), as em- 
ployed in the Hebrew Scriptures. Some distinguished 
critics, as Parkhurst, Clarke, Lange, and Delitzsch, assert 
that Kia means to originate de novo, to create in an ab- 
solute sense ; and that fife)? and is*' strictly mean to fash- 

T T V • v 

ion out of pre -existent materials. 1 But Pusey, Kitto, 
Tayler Lewis, and some of the Rabbinical commenta- 
tors (Aben Ezra especially), affirm that aia (bara), both 

1 We make r.o pretensions to critical acquaintance with the Hebrew, hut 
will hazard this suggestion. ""T^ (aysah) is the most general term ; its fun- 
damental meaning is to do, to perform, to work, and may embrace both orig- 
ination and formation. X13 (bara) and IS? (yetsar) are more specific, the 
former denoting the origination of a new essence or substance, the latter 
formation or fashioning out of pre-existing materials. Thus we read in 
Gen. ii. 7 : " And the Lord God formed [IS?] man [i. e., the body of man] 
out of the dust of the earth." Here we have pre-existing matter. But in 
Gen. i. 27 we read, "And God created [N13] man [*. e., the soul of man] 
in his own image." Here we have no pre-existing material, for matter 
can not bear the image of God. (See Acts xvii. 29.) Bara must there- 
fore here mean origination. Even in Gen. i. 21, where bara is employed 
in regard to the production of living creatures, we have the origination of 
something new: for vitality, sensitivity, perception are not properties of mat- 
ter, neither can they be educed from any organization of matter. 



58 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OE THE WORLD. 

by its etymology and its connections, indicates forma- 
tion as much as origination, and is, in fact, indifferent and 
neutral either as to a supposed creation ex nihilo, or a 
creation, that is, a formation from pre-existing materials. 
Furthermore, it is affirmed that the three Hebrew verbs 
are used indiscriminately in the Mosaic record. It is said 
in Gen. i. 27 that God created (s^a) man, and that state- 
ment is amplified and explained at eh. ii. 7 : " And 
the Lord God formed [!"no»] man out of the dust of the 
earth.^ 1 An appeal to the merely verbal expressions of 
Scripture does not, therefore, promise any satisfactory and 
conclusive results. 

By what method, then, are we to determine the Biblical 
notion of Creation ? Clearly, not by a critical study of 
the several words which are employed to express the 
creative act — not by confining our attention to the visible 
embodiment of the Divine word, and neglecting the in- 
forming thought. We must ground our conception of 
creation upon the fundamental ideas and principles of 
Divine revelation, and determine it in harmony with the 
Christian idea of God, and the Christian doctrine of the 
relation of the world to God. 

These fundamental principles we have already pre- 
sented. They may be succinctly restated in the follow- 
ing propositions : 

(1.) God is the one only self -existent, independent, un- 
conditioned Being, " who alone hath immortality," " the 
incorruptible or immutable God" (cupdap-oc Geo?), "with 

1 We can not help regarding this mode of reasoning as superficial and 
misleading. Gen. i. 27, " So God created [X^S] man in his own image" 
refers to the spiritual nature of man which alone can bear the "image of 
God," and must mean origination. Gen. ii. 7, "And the Lord God formed 
[Ft^] man out of the dust of the earth," refers solely to the body of man. 
This distinction can scarcely be accidental. 



THE CREATION. 59 

whom is no variableness or shadow of change." ! (2.) God 
is the sole causality of the heavens and the earth, in the 
most absolute sense. "Whatever is, and is not God, is the 
creature of God. " By Him were all things created which 
are in heaven and which are upon earth, things visible 
and things invisible" — the objects of sense-perception and 
of rational intuition. The origin, development, and end, 
the principle, law, and reason of all existence, are in God 
and from God — rravra sk tov 0£ou, Iv tu> OfoJ, st£ tov 0eov. 2 
(3.) The all of the finite is in ceaseless and complete de- 
pendence on the Divine causality — " He upholdeth all 
things," and " by Him all things consist." 

Our interpretation of the formal language of Scripture, 
especially of the verbs which are employed to denote the 
act of creation, must therefore be informed and deter- 
mined by these fundamental principles. If God is the 
unconditioned Cause of all existence, then the Creation 
must be the absolutely free and self -deter mined act of 
God. As such, it can not have been conditioned by any 
immanent necessity in the Divine nature itself, nor by 
any necessary existence out of and extraneous to the Di- 
vine nature. By this conception of God, and of his re- 
lation to the world, we are debarred from supposing the 
coeval existence of any thing besides God (e. g., atrupov, to 
/j.rj 6v of Plato, the v\j] of Aristotle, the "matter" of the 
modern Physicist) as the condition and medium of the 
Divine agency and manifestation. While, therefore, it is 
acknowledged that in Gen. i. 21, 27, fc^a (bara) denotes 
the formation of organic bodies out of pre-existent ma- 
terials, we can not be restricted to this meaning of the 
term when dealing with verse 1, "In the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth." "We are compelled 

1 James i. 17. 2 Rom. xi. 36. 



60 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

to believe that "bara" here means origination — origina- 
tion de novo ; first, because the primal act of creation 
must have been a supernatural, miraculous production of 
something which had not previously existed under any 
form — an unconditioned creation antecedent to nature ; 
and, secondly, because we are informed that after this 
primal act of creation, " the earth was still without form 
and void." No possible ingenuity of criticism can con- 
strue that opening sentence of revelation to mean, " In the 
beginning God gave form to pre-existing matter." That 
first beginning is the pri?icipium jprinciqyiorum, the be- 
ginning of all beginnings, and must be distinguished from 
the six new beginnings of the six days' work. 1 We must 
regard this sublime utterance, standing at the head of all 
God's communications, as affirming this foundation-idea 
of revelation — that God is the sole causality of the heav- 
ens and the earth in an absolute sense, the efficient cause 
of time, and all temporal relations ; the all-mighty cause 
of space, and all spatial relations ; the originator of the 
primordial substance, and all its qualities — in a word, the 
unconditioned Creator of all finite being, quality, and re- 
lation — " P^iSK'iai — iv apxrf—injprincvpio — first of all (in 
the order of conception rather than the order of time) 
God originated, laid the foundations of, the heavens and 
the earth." 2 

And now that the Creation here affirmed was an ab- 
solute origination, a bringing into being of the primordial 

1 Lange's "Commentary," Introduction. 

2 We can not overlook the connection between Gen. i. 1 and John i. 1, 
and close our eyes to the light which the later announcement throws upon 
the former. It is most probable that by tv apxy John means Iv alwvi, in 
eternity — that is, before all time-succession began. 'Apxv here can have no 
relation to time. And why may we not accept the Platonic notion of " a 
creation in eternity," which itself constituted a beginning of time ? Prior to 
finite succession and change, there can be no time. 



the creation: 61 

elements out of which the heavens and the earth were sub- 
sequently " formed," is the doctrine of the best Hebrew 
lexicographers. It is held by many of the best authori- 
ties that the particle nx (ayth) means " the very substance 
of," " the very or real essence." Fiirst, in his recently 
published Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, gives " being, 
essence, substance," as the meaning of " ayth." Gese- 
nius, in his Hebrew Grammar, says " ' ayth' means being, 
substance" (p. 216). And furthermore, he says " ' ayth 9 
is a substantive derived from a pronominal stem, and sig- 
nifies essence, substance, being." " The particle ' ayth 9 " 
says Aben Ezra, " signifies the substance of a thing." 
Kimchi, in his famous " Book of Hebrew Roots," gives 
a similar definition. In the Syriac version, " yoth" 
takes the place of "ayth" and is very appropriately ren- 
dered in Walton's Polyglot, " esse coeli et esse terrce " — 
the being or substance of the heavens and the earth. It 
is not, therefore, a fanciful and altogether unauthorized 
reading of this opening sentence of Divine revelation 
which the Christian idea of God, and of his relation to 
the world, seems to demand — "In the beginning God 
originated, brought into being, the primordial elements 
of the heavens and the earth." 

For manageable clearness, in dealing with the Mosaic 
primeval history, we shall find ourselves under the ne- 
cessity of accepting the distinction made by theologians 
between creatio prima, imrnediata, and creatio mediata, 
formativa. 

1. An absolute Creation, a pure supernatural origina- 
tion — the Beginning of all beQ-innino-s. 

2. An artistic, architectonic Creation, a supernatural 
formation out of a first substance — the production of new 



62 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

things or beings "by aggregation, organization, and devel- 
opment according to pre-established laws and archetypal 
ideas. 

The first notion of Creation is grounded on the Omnip- 
otence of God, the second on the Infinite Wisdom of God, 
and both are united in and ultimately grounded on the 
unconditioned Will. 

And now let us confine our attention to the first con- 
ception of Creation — creatio prima, immediata, or abso- 
lute CREATION. 

The fundamental Theistic conception which lies at the 
very root of the Biblical doctrine of Creation, and clearly 
distinguishes it from all Materialistic, Pantheistic, and 
Dualistic notions of the origin of the world, is that God 
is the Absolute Personality — the eternally self-conscious, 
self -complete, self-sufficient Being, all the determinations 
of whose nature and action are grounded in his absolute 
Will. The Divine essence, in its inmost, deepest ground, 
is not determined being, bat unlimited power of self-de- 
termination. The primitive, root idea of the Godhead is 
an ever-living, unconditioned Will — an unconditioned 
Will as the indivisible unity and perpetual differentiation 
of reason and poioer, a will which realizes itself in self-af- 
firmation (ipseity) ; manifests itself in self-determination 
and choice (alterity) ; and completes itself in the actual- 
ization of a final purpose (perfection). 1 The nature of 
God, as distinct from his essence, is absolutely his own 
act. 2 God, as the manifested God, is what He is by his 

1 " God being limited neither in nor by any other existence, is infinite in 
a positive sense, inasmuch as his will alone imposes all limitation." — Ulrici, 
"Gott und die Natur," 1862, p. 535. 

2 Natura — that which is produced or born, that which is always becoming. 
Essentia — the fundamental, permanent being. See note 1, following page. 



THE CREATION. Qg 

own determination and choice. God is just, because He 
wills to be just; God is holy, because He wills to be holy ; 
God is good, because He wills to be good, and not from 
any constraining, immanent necessity, otherwise He could 
not be the object of praise, adoration, and love. If God 
is not good by virtue of his own determination and choice, 
then there is nothing praiseworthy and adorable in his 
nature, and all the thanksgiving of sacred psalmody is 
meaningless ; worship is groundless, religion has no signif- 
icance, and love to God is impossible. A necessitated 
goodness can no more command our moral esteem than 
the uniform revolution of the planetary orbs, and where 
there is no moral esteem, there can be no love, no worship, 
and no praise. 1 

If, then, God is a personal Being, the Absolute Person- 
ality, another being can not proceed from Him except in 
virtue of his own free determination. Creation must 
therefore he a voluntary act. 

And for the full comprehension of this fundamental 
principle, we must remember that volition is something 
more than a simple efflux of power, something more than 

1 " We Arminians hold that God is freely good from eternity to eternity, 
just as man is good freely and alternatively for one hour. Infinite knowl- 
edge does not insure infinite goodness. Infinite knowledge (which is a very 
different thing from infinite tcisdoni) is not an anterior cause of infinite good- 
ness ; but both Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Holiness consist in and re- 
sult from God's volitions eternally, and absolutely, perfectly coinciding with, 
not the Wrong, but the Right. God's infinite knowledge = omniscience, is 
an eternal, fixed, necessary 6e-ing ; God's wisdom and holiness are an eternal 
volitional becoming; an eternally free, alternative putting fortli of choices 
for the Right. God's omniscience is self-existent ; God's wisdom and holi- 
ness are self-made, or eternally and continuously being made. God is neces- 
sarily omnipotent and all-knowing through eternity, but God is truly wise 
and holy through all eternity, but no more necessarily than a man through a 
single hour. God is holy therefore, not automatically, but freely ; not mere- 
ly with infinite excellence, but with infinite meritoriousness." — Whedon, 
'" Freedom of the Will," p. 316. 



64- THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

a mere developing tendency — an evolution or process 
without motive and without design. A voluntary act is 
a designed, an intentional act, the act of a being who can 
previously contemplate the act in thought, who can have 
a reason or motive for the doing of the act, and who can 
determine and condition the deed. This conception of 
creation as a voluntary act is unmistakably presented in 
the oft-repeated language of the Mosaic record, " God 
said, Let there he — and there was!" "The speaking of 
God most certainly indicates the thinking of God, and it 
thence follows that all the works of creation are thoughts 
of God (idealism). But it indicates also a will making it- 
self externally known, an active operation of God ; and 
thence it follows that all the works of creation are deeds 
of God (realism). Thinking and operating, however, are 
one in the Divine speaking, the primal source of language 
— his personality making Himself known (personalism). 
. . . Through creating, speaking, making, forming, the 
world is ever and again denoted as the free deed of God." l 
Furthermore, creation is a voluntary act in the most abso- 
lute sense — that is, it is an act of God to which He was 
not determined by any inherent necessity or want of his 
own nature, and an act which was not conditioned, in a 
necessary manner, by any thing out of, distinct from, and 
extraneous to the Divine nature. 

1. Creation was an act of God to which He was not de- 
termined by any inherent necessity or wa?it of his own 
nature. 

If God is the eternally self-conscious, self- complete, and 
self-sufficient TBeing, He is under no necessity to create 
other beings in order to realize perfect self-consciousness, 
or to secure his own perfect blessedness. He does not 

1 Lange, ''Commentary" on Gen. i., p. 180. 



THE CREATION. Q$ 

need "otherness" — that which is not Himself — in order to 
become manifest to Himself ; neither does He " crave be- 
ings not Himself" 1 in order to his complete felicity. The 
antithesis of self and non-self — the ego and the non-ego — 
may be a necessary condition of finite personality, but it 
can not be a necessary condition of Absolute Personality. 
God is eternally revealed to Himself in an unconditioned 
manner as self-conscious Love, self-conscious Reason, self- 
conscious Energy — the Father, the Word, the Spirit; and 
Pie is from all eternity " the ever-blessed God," who has 
in the Divine Triunity the eternal and absolutely worthy 
object of his Love, independent of every relation to the 
world and humanity — "Thou lovedst Me before the foun- 
dation of the world " (John xvii. 24), " before the world 
was " (ver. 5). 2 

If, then, creation be the act of an Absolute Personality, 
the act of a Being who freely and unconditionally deter- 
mines his own nature and conclitionates all existence, then 
the Will of God is the sole causality of the world, and in 
his "Will alone we have the unlimited, infinite ground-prin- 
ciple of all reality. Absolute Personality tolerates no oth- 
er transition from the idea of God to the idea of the world 
than that of a "Will which freely conditions itself by 
Love. This Free Love is the highest determining princi- 
ple for the Divine efficiency. Therefore, in order to de- 
rive the essential existence of the world from God, the 
Scriptures postulate nothing beside or beyond an ever-liv- 
ing, intelligent Will which has its reason or motive, but 
not its necessitating cause, in Love — " the benevolence 
(ti><Wa) of his Will" (Eph. i. 5). The Creation is nothing 
else than the free self-communication of God, who is Him- 

1 Poynting, quoted b}' Martineau in "Nature and God, : ' p. 153. 

2 See also Heb. i. 

E 



$Q THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

self eternally self -complete and self-sufficient, but who 
from love alone wills that other beings shall have exist- 
ence and, in fellowship with Him, eternal life. 1 

It is only by holding fast to these principles in all their 
integrity that we can escape the seductions of Pantheism, 
that perpetual temptation of metaphysical minds. The 
fundamental idea of Pantheism is " an indeterminate prin- 
ciple which is necessarily determined to become succes- 
sively every thing. Absolute necessity is the beginning, 
middle, and end." 2 We can escape its iron grasp only by 
distinctly recognizing and firmly holding the Absolute 
Personality of God — that is, by affirming a perfect self- 
consciousness which is not conditioned by an antithetical 
not-self; a perfect self-determination which is not con- 
ditioned by an antecedent natura naturans / and a per- 
fect self-sufficiency which knows no want. The first af- 
firmation rejects the dialectical necessity of Hegel, the 
second excludes the mathematical necessity of Spinoza, 
the third cancels the metaphysical necessity of Cousin. 3 

2. Creation as the free act of God was not conditioned 
by any thing out of and foreign to the Divine nature. 

A moment's reflection will suffice to convince us that a 
limitation posited from without would be as fatal to the 
idea of God as a supposed inherent necessity determining 
the Divine causality from within. The idea of God as 
the Being who is absolutely self-grounded, self-sufficient, 
and self-determined, equally excludes both. If God is 
the sole causality of the heavens and the earth in an abso- 
lute sense — the efficient cause of time and all temporal 
succession — the all-mighty cause of space, and of all spatial 

1 See Miiller's "Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. p. 146. 

2 Saisset, "Modern Pantheism," vol. ii. p. 119. 

3 " History of Modern Philosophy," vol. i. p. 94. 



THE CREATIOX. 67 

relations — the sole originator of the primordial substance, 
and of all its qualities, then the creative act can not have 
been conditioned by Time or Space or Matter. 

In his otherwise admirable essay on " Nature and God," 
Mr. Martineau asserts that we can have no conception of 
even the possibility of a creation except on the assump- 
tion of the coeval existence of something objective to 
God as the condition and medium of the Divine agency 
and manifestation. He therefore affirms the coeval and 
co-eternal existence of Space and Matter. Time and Num- 
ber ^ " with Him, and yet independent of Him." - The 
idea of God's " supplying Himself 'with, objectivity" is, 
in his judgment, "discredited by modern science." The 
creative act must therefore have been conditioned by some- 
thing other than God, and independent of God. 

JSTow it must be obvious to every thoughtful mind that 
this assumption tends to the invalidation of every proof 
of the existence of God. If it can be shown that any one 
tiling exists aside from and independent of God — that any 
thing exists which was not created by God — then may we 
claim equal independence for every other thing, and He 
who claims to be the Creator of all things is discredited. 
As Herbert Spencer urges, with great force, " If we ad- 
mit that there can be something uncaused, there is no rea- 
son to assume a cause for any thing." 2 With w T hat rea- 
son can we say that some things do exist that never were 
created, but others can not so exist? If substances are 
eternal, why not attributes ? If matter is self -existent, why 
not force ? If space is independent, why not form ? And 
if we concede the eternity of matter and force, why not 
admit the eternity of law — that is, uniformity of relations ? 
And if so much is granted, why not also grant that a con 

1 "Essays," 1st Series, pp. 158, 161. 2 "First Principles," p. 37. 



08 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

sequent order of the universe is also eternal? If we ad- 
mit that any thing besides God is self-existent, that any 
thing exists independent of God as " the condition of the 
Divine agency and manifestation/' then God is not the 
unconditioned Absolute Being. "A limitation posited 
from without directly destroys the idea of God, for it con- 
tradicts the idea of the Absolute.'' 1 

Mr. Martineau admits that the assumption of " the co- 
eval existence of matter as the condition and medium of 
the Divine agency" "rests on quite other grounds than 
those which support our belief respecting space." 2 We 
can conceive the non-existence of matter, but we can not 
conceive the non-existence of space. The idea of space is 
absolutely necessary, therefore " no one asks a cause for 
the space of the universe." 3 In making this assertion, 
however, Mr. Martineau betrays some want of acquaint- 
ance with the history of the philosophy of space and time. 
Many able and thoroughly philosophic minds have " asked 
a cause," and have assigned a cause for " the space of the 
universe." Sir Isaac Newton held that " God endures al- 
ways and is present every where, and by existing always 
and every where constitutes duration and space." 4 This 
doctrine, thus generally stated, is held by Saisset to be in- 
contestible. 5 McCosh also believes that time and space 
are not independent of God: "I am not necessarily 
obliged to believe that the infinity of space and time is 
independent of the infinity of God. . . . Who will venture 
to affirm that space and time, being dependent on God, 

1 Mtiller, "Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. p. 215. 

2 "Essays," 1st Series, p. 161. 3 "Essays," 1st Series, p. 203. 

4 "Deus durat semper et adest ubique, et existendo semper et unique du- 
rationem et spatium, aeternitatem et infinitatem constituit." — Principiu, 
Sckol Gen. 

5 "Modern Pantheism," vol, i. p. 180. 



THE CREATION. (JO, 

may not stand in some relation to God which is altogether 
indefinable and utterly incomprehensible by us." l Final- 
ly, Schleiermacher and Nitzsch do not hesitate to teach 
that "God is the all-mighty cause of space" and "the 
efficient cause of time." 2 

The question whether the idea of space is conditionally 
or unconditionally necessary can only be determined by 
the solution of the deeper question whether space is a real 
entity or a relation. If space is a real entity, it must have 
properties or attributes, but what philosopher of any rep- 
utation has ever attempted to set down the properties or 
attributes of space ? They who assert that space is an un- 
created, independent, and indestructible entity, ought to 
be able to define it and tell what it is. Dr. Porter tells 
us that space can not be defined, "We can not form a 
concept of this entity by means of generalized attributes 
or relations." 3 Can that be for us an entity of which we 
can form no concept, and which we can not determine in 
thought by any attribute or relation ? The writer of the 
article on " The Philosophy of Time and Space," in the 
North American Review? is an earnest defender of the 
objective reality of space as an independent and inde- 
structible entity, and he has defined and analyzed the con- 
cept. " Space is absolute vacuity " (p. 91). " The idea of 
space is a triple synthesis ... of three negative notions — 
receptivity, unity, and infinity ; the first is the negation of 
matter, the second is the negation of divisibility, the third 
is the negation of limitation " (p. 95). Do these words 
convey any knowledge ? Absolute vacuity is void, empty, 
inane. Absolute vacuity is pure nothing, and of course 

1 "Intuitions," p. 213. 

2 " System of Christian Doctrine," by Nitzsch, pp. 156-7. 

3 " The Human Intellect," p. 565. * July, 1864. 



70 THE THE I STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

there is nothing to be divided and nothing to be limited. 
Absolute vacuity is a negation, and unity and infinity are 
negations of a negation — that is, they are predicates of 
nothing. " Negative notions " must be predicates of some- 
thing, otherwise they are a mere negation or absence of 
thought, and convey absolutely no knowledge. We may, 
if we please, assert with Hegel, that " Nothing is the same 
as Being," and then amuse ourselves with making affirma- 
tions concerning vacuity, nihility, and unreality to the dis- 
grace of philosophy; but the common-sense of mankind 
will repudiate our absurdities. We can not think about 
nothing ; all thought must be positive. Thought must 
have an object, and that object must be either an entity, 
or the attribute of an entity, or a relation between entities. 

If pure space is regarded as " absolute vacuity" — pure 
nothing — then we may readily dispose of the argument 
on which Prof. Stewart relies with so much confidence. 
" Divine omnipotence can not annihilate space," ] there- 
fore it must be an independent reality. We have simply 
to answer — the notion of annihilating nihility is an ab- 
surdity and a contradiction. There is nothing to be an- 
nihilated, and Omnipotence even must be inadequate to 
the annihilation of nothing. 

If, with Leibnitz, Lord Monboddo, Calderwood, and 
many modern physicists, 2 we reject the notion of " abso- 

1 Stewart's Dissertation in " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. i. p. 142. 

2 Even physical science rejects the notion of " pure space," and it may be 
reasonably doubted whether "absolute vacuity" has any place in the uni- 
verse of God. As a question of science, the existence of the " vacuum " is 
doubtful. "It may be safely asserted that hitherto all attempts at pro- 
ducing a perfect vacuum have failed." — Grove, "Correlation of Physical 
Forces," p. 134. The general tendency of science is toward a denial of its 
existence (p. 1 37). As a question of metaphysics, the human reason can 
only find satisfaction in believing in a spiritual Being, a living Will which 
"inhabiteth eternity and immensity," and "filleth all in all" with living and 



THE CREATION. 71 

lute vacuity " — infinite space — and regard space as a re- 
lation — the relation of position, distance, direction — then, 
like all the quantitive relations of mathematics, it may be 
regarded as conditionally necessary — that is, bodies being 
given, they must necessarily have place, distance, and di- 
rection. 1 Space as a necessary relation is a reality, but a 
reality which is conditioned and conditional, and " God is 
the all-mighty cause of space." If all bodies were anni- 
hilated, there would be no position, no distance, no direc- 
tion, and consequently space would be annihilated. There 
would remain nothing but the timeless, spaceless, Infinite 
One, who is the efficient cause of all existence, all quali- 
ties, and all relations. This, again, would be a sufficient 
answer to the sophism of Dr. Clark, quoted and indorsed 
by Stewart — " God can not annihilate the space in this 
room !" Annihilate the room, and the relative space in 
the room is no more — that is, the distance between the in- 
closing walls. Of " pure space " apart from the relations 
of bodies we have no conception, can have no conception ; 
for to annihilate all bodies, in thought, we must annihilate 
our own body, and to a disembodied spirit there can be 
no here and no there. Place is a relation belonging to 
extension, and extension is a property of matter only. 2 

There has been so much confusion of thought generated 
by the mere word- jugglery of philosophers in the use of 
the terms time and space, duration and extension, eter- 
nity and immensity, that a revision of the whole termi- 
nology in the interest of true science is demanded. It is 

life-giving fullness, so that "in Him we live and move and have being." 
— McCosh, " Intuitions of the Mind," p. 225. 

1 "By empty space I mean distance, I mean direction: that steeple is a 
mile off, and not here where I sit, and it lies southeast and not north." 
— Herschel, "Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects," p. 455. 

2 Taylor, "Physical Theory of Another Life," p. 26. 



72 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

perilous to launch out upon this ocean of equivocal phrase- 
ology, called the philosophy of time and space, before tak- 
ing our bearings, amid notions so closely related, yet so 
dissimilar, and endeavoring to fix some definite meaning 
to these terms, which, like points of the compass, shall en- 
able us to find our position. 

. 1. Let tcs commence our effort with space, extension, 
and immensity. Some philosophers — Cousin, 1 Hamilton, 2 
Spencer, 3 McCosh, 4 for example — confound space and ex- 
tension, and all of them confound both with absolute im- 
mensity. 5 

Now if space is identical with extension, it must be cog- 
nized by the senses and the sensuous imagination. This is 
unhesitatingly affirmed by Hamilton : " We see extension," 
and " by the name extension we designate our empirical 
knowledge of space." 6 So also McCosh: "Of space. in the 
concrete we have an immediate knowledge by the senses, 
certainly by some of them, such as the touch and sight." 7 
Space in this connection can not therefore be regarded as 
an a priori cognition. It is equally obvious that if sj>ace 
is identical with extension, it must have color and form. 
This also is admitted by Hamilton : "I can easily anni- 
hilate all corporeal existence [in imagination]. I can im- 

1 " The idea of space — the idea of extension — is the logical condition of 
the admission of the idea of the body.' 1 — "History of Philosophy," vol. ii. 
p. 217. 

2 "Extension is only another name for space." — "Lectures on Meta- 
physics," vol. ii. p. 113. 

3 "Space and extension are convertible terms." — "First Principles," p. 
48. 

4 See " Intuitions," p. 223, where the terms are employed as synonymous. 

5 L'immensite ou l'unite de l'espace." — Cousin, " Histoire de la Philoso- 
phie du xviii me Siecle," p. 12!. "Infinity of extension." — McCosh, "In- 
tuitions," p. 223. "Infinite immensity of space." — Hamilton, "Discus- 
sions," p. 36. 

6 "Lectures," vol. ii. pp. 114, 167. 7 " Intuitions," p. 202. 



THE CREATION. 73 

agine empty space. But there are two attributes of which 
I can not divest it — that is, shape and color." 1 Now if 
space has " shape," that is, figure, it must have dimensions, 
and accordingly we find almost all philosophers speaking of 
the three dimensions of space — length, breadth, and depth. 
That which has length, breadth, and depth must be divis- 
ible, must have parts and proportions, must have suscep- 
tibilities of exact measurement, and therefore must be 
finite. This again is the doctrine of Hamilton : " Space is 
finite, and a finite, that is, a bounded space constitutes 
a figure" — a sphere. 2 The fundamental doctrine of 
Hamilton is that " space, like time, is only the intuition 
or the concept of a certain correlation of existence — of 
existence, therefore, pro tanto, as conditioned. It is thus 
itself only a form of the conditioned."* But if space be 
only a correlation of conditioned, and therefore finite ex- 
istence, how can he speak of it " being conceived as in- 
finite," 4 and, above all, how can he speak of "the abso- 
lute totality " and " the infinite immensity of space." 

McCosh, also, though evidently with some hesitation, 
teaches that " we can conceive proportion in space, and 
if we take any of these proportional sections, and divide 
it into two, thought will compel us to say that the two 
make up the whole. In this sense the parts make up the 
whole — that is, the subsections make up the section. If 
the question be extended beyond this, and it be asked, Is 
infinite space made up of parts ? I answer, that as we 
can have no adequate notion of infinite space, so we can 
not be expected to answer all the questions which may be 
put regarding it. It is certain that neither infinite space 
nor finite space is made up of separate parts. We can 



i <■'- 



Lectures," vol. ii. p. 169. 3 "Discussions," etc., p. 3(7. 

"Lectures," vol. ii. p. 170. * "Philosophy," p. 357. 



74 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

speak intelligibly of. proportions in finite space, and de- 
termine their relations to each other and the whole. I 
tremble to speak of the proportions of infinite space, lest 
I be using language which has or can have no proper 
meaning, and the signification attached to which by me 
or others might be altogether inapplicable to such a sub- 
ject. Still there are propositions which we might intelli- 
gibly use. It is self-evident that any proportion of space 
must be less than infinite space. And if infinite space 
can be conceived as having proportions, and we could 
conceive all these proportions, then these proportions 
would be equal to the whole!" 1 Well may the author 
say that he is "in a region dark and pathless ;" for the 
language here employed " can have no proper meaning " 
in regard to infinite space. Well may he " tremble to 
speak of the proportions of infinite space" for what can 
proportion {pro, for portio, a part) mean except a nu- 
merical relation of parts ? Proportions — numerical rela- 
tions — are measurable quantities, therefore finite quanti- 
ties, and no addition of finite quantities, can make the in- 
finite. What confusion and contradiction is here wrought 
by this word-jugglery with "the whole and parts" of 
space ! 

Cousin, also, falls into the same inaccuracy and con- 
fusion. He tells us that " human reason can conceive of 
a space determined and limited," 2 therefore divisible, 
measurable, and finite ; and yet at the same time he 
teaches that " space is illimitable, absolutely continuous, 
an indivisible unity." 3 

And now let us note the contradictions which flow 
from this confounding of space with extension, and both 

1 " Intuitions," p. 208. 2 "History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 77. 

3 " History of Philosophy," vol. ii. p. 224. 



the creation; 75 

with immensity. Space is cognized a posteriori, space is 
cognized a priori. Space has parts and proportions, space 
has no parts or proportions. Space is divisible, space is 
indivisible — an absolute unity. Space is finite, space is 
infinite. Space is susceptible of exact measurement, space 
is immeasurable — that is, absolute immensity. 

Space and extension are not identical. Extension is 
simply an attribute of body — the continuity of matter. 
Space is place, distance, direction, relations of bodies. 
Space is a certain correlation of finite existences. Im- 
mensity is the attribute of the unconditioned Being, the 
absolute Spirit — that is, God. He is incorporeal, bound- 
less, spaceless, infinite. 

2. The same confusion pervades the writings of philos- 
ophers in regard to time, duration, and eternity. 

Succession is confounded with duration, 1 duration with 
time, 2 and time with eternity. 3 

If succession and duration are identical, then, there is 
no permanent substance underlying the fugitive phenom- 
ena of the outer world, and no personal existence which 
remains the same through all the changes of our mental 
states. The human mind is simply " a series of feelings," 
a succession of mental states without any enduring ground 
principle constituting our personal identity, and we are 
thus landed in the constructive Idealism of John Stuart 

1 "When the succession of ideas ceases, our perception of duration ceases 
with it." — Locke, " Essays" (bk. ii. ch. xiv. § 4). 

2 Time and duration are confounded by McCosh ("Intuitions," p. 223), 
by Mahan ("Intellectual Philosophy," p. 22), and by Cousin ("History of 
Philosophy," vol. ii. p. 229). 

3 "Absolute time is eternity" (Cousin, "History of Philosophy," vol. i. 
p. 77). " L'eternite ou l'unite de temps" ("Histoire de la Philosophic du 
xviii me Siecle," p. 121). "Eternity is the synonym of pure time" {North 
American Review, April. 1861, p. 115). 



76 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Mill. 1 On the other hand, if there be a permanent sub- 
stance or essence underlying all mental phenomena, whose 
continuance in existence is measured by phenomenal 
change, time succession, then duration can not be iden- 
tical with time, any more than permanence can be the 
same as change. With finite duration there is necessarily 
given change ; the past is like the future — always a minus 
in relation to the present. 

Furthermore, if time is synonymous with eternity, then 
eternity is divisible, measurable, it has limits and parts. 
Time, say the philosophers, has one dimension, while space 
has three. " We," says McCosh, " represent time as a 
line," 2 it must therefore be divisible, and, if divisible, it 
is legitimate to speak, w T ith Hamilton, of " time and its 
parts." " Time has succession, or priority and posterior- 
ity." 3 And yet this same writer in the same work tells 
us, " Time has no limits," and " Time can not be divided 
into separable parts." 4 If time and eternity are identical, 
eternity has a past, a present, and a future — " eternity ab 
ante and eternity a post." 5 The eternity past is bounded 
by the present, it ends now ; the eternity to come begins 
now. We may with propriety ask, How can that which 
has succession, which is capable of exact measurement, 
which has a beginning and an end, be infinite ? That 
which had a beginning can not be unbeginning, that 
which w^ill come to an end can not be endless. Is not 
the " eternity of time" a contradiction in terms 1 Is not 
" absolute time " an absurdity 1 

Mark, then, the contradictions which flow from the con- 

1 "Mind is nothing but the series of our feelings as they actually occur, 
with the addition of infinite possibilities of feeling" ("Examination of 
Hamilton's Philosophy," vol. i. p. 253). 

2 ' ' Intuitions, " p. 206. 4 ' ' Intuitions, " p. 252. 

3 " Intuitions," p. 206. 5 Hamilton's "Lectures," vol. ii. p. 527. 



THE CREATION. 77 

founding of succession and duration, time and eternity. 
Time has limits, time lias no limits. Time is divisible, 
time is indivisible. Time is finite, time is infinite. Time 
is relative, time is absolute. Time is moving, "it flows;" 
time is immovable, " it does not flow." 1 

Duration and succession, eternity and time, are not 
identical. Duration is the continuance in existence of 
finite creatures, a continuance which is measured by the 
equable motion of planetary orbs, and imperfectly by 
phenomenal changes in our mental states. Succession is 
simply an order of phenomena, the recurrence, at regular 
or irregular intervals, of like changes, or the series of dif- 
ferent states in the same existence. Time is a certain 
correlation of successive existences. Eternity is an attri- 
bute of the absolute Being — the timelessness of God. He 
is not subject to the law of change, and therefore not to 
the law of time, therefore his absolute being can not be 
measured by successive epochs. 

Let us now endeavor to dismiss from our thought all 
this perplexing necromancy of words, and humbly pray, 
with Themistoeles, for " some sweet voluptuous art of for- 
getting." Let us fix our mental gaze upon the objects of 
thought which are denoted by the terms time and space, 
and ask what are they % Are they existences .or attributes, 
are they ideal or real, are they entities or relations ? Have 
we any clear and definite notions of which these are the 
unequivocal signs ? The solution of these questions is the 
essential condition of a true philosophy of time and space. 

First of all, is it not self-evident that, if time and space 
are for us the objects of thought, they must be conceived 
under the categories of Being or Quality or Relation f 
If they can not be thought as real existences, or as attri- 
1 McCosh, " Intuitions," p. 205 ; Saisset, "Mod. Pantheism/' vol. i. p. 193. 



78 THE THETSTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

butes of existing things, or as relations among existing 
things, they can not be thought at all — they are non-en- 
tities, and we can not think about nothing. " Thought 
can only be realized by thinking something . . . this some- 
thing must be thought as existing . . . and we can only 
think a thing as existing, by thinking it as existing in this 
or that determinate manner of existence ; and whenever 
we cease to think of something as existing — something 
existing in a determinate manner of existence — we cease 
to think at all." 1 

McCosh asserts that time and space are " neither sub- 
stances, modes, nor relations." 2 What, then, are they? 
He answers, " They seem to be entitled to be put in a 
class by themselves, and resemble substances, modes, re- 
lations only in that they are existences, entities, reali- 
ties" 3 But if they are entitled to be put in a class by 
themselves, what is the name of that class, and by what 
characteristic marks shall we distinguish it ? If they are 
realities, they must have being, or inhere in something 
that has being, or be relations of something in being. If 
they are existences, they must be the objects of sense 
perception, or rational intuition, or immediate judg- 
ment, otherwise they can not be cognized at all, for " the 
mind can not create objects of its own cognition." 

We ask again, What are space and time ? McCosh 
and Dr. Porter both answer : 1. They are not substan- 
ces. This no one will dispute. They are not material 
substances having sensible qualities which can be the ob- 
jects of sense perception. Space and time are not per- 
ceived by the senses. 4 Neither are they spiritual sub- 

1 Hamilton's "Logic," p. 55. 

2 " Intuitions," p. 211 . See also Porter's " Human Intellect," p. 567. 
' J "Intuitions," p. 211. 

4 Strange as it may sound, Dr. McCosh says, at p. 202, that "we have an 



THE CREATION. 79 

stances. We do not know the m as having power and 
performing acts. 2. They both reply, They are not at- 
tributes or qualities of matter or spirit. This, also, no one 
will dispute, if the word " time " is not used as a synonym 
for " eternity," and the word " space " is not used as a 
synonym for " immensity," because " eternity " and " im- 
mensity " are attributes of the absolute Spirit. 3. They 
both assert, They are not relations. This is disputed by 
many : by Leibnitz, by Hamilton, by Saisset, by Calder- 
wood, and by others. Leibnitz says, " Space is the order" 
of things co-existing. Time is the order of things succes- 
sive." ' Hamilton says, " Space, like time, is only the in- 
tuition or the conception of a certain correlation of ex- 
istence." 2 Calderwood defines time " as a certain corre- 
lation of existence," and " space as the recognized rela- 
tion of extended objects." 3 And Saisset regards time and 
space as standing in the same category with mathemat- 
ical relations. 4 These are, to say the least, distinguished 
names in philosophy. The opinions of men who have 
for years pondered these profound problems are at any 
rate entitled to proper consideration, and if in opposition 
to their views it is affirmed that time and space as under- 
standing-concepts are not relations, some reasons should 
be assigned. All the proof offered by Dr. McCosh is that 
" we know no two or more things which by their relation 
could yield space and time" (p. 211). We answer, 
promptly, duration and change do yield the relation of 
time. " The consciousness of succession in our mental 
states is in reality our consciousness of time." 5 The co- 
immediate knowledge of space in the concrete by the senses," and here he 
asserts that " space is not a substance, "and therefore can not be perceived. 

1 " Opuscula," p. 752. * "Modern Pantheism," vol. i. p. 192. 

2 " Discussions," p. 36. 5 "Philosophy of the Infinite," p. 300. 

3 " Philosophy of the Infinite," pp. 319, 331. 



SO THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

existence of two or more extended objects must yield the 
relation of space, for " empty space is nothing more than 
the relative distance of extended objects from each other, 
measured on a standard similar to that which applies to 
the bodies themselves. In this way it is equally accurate 
to say that there is a certain specified distance between 
the bodies, and that there is nothing between them, be- 
cause space is nothing but their relation to each other." 1 
Annihilate all finite existences, and what remains? Noth- 
ing but the immensity of God. Let one atom of matter 
be created, and we have extension. Let a second atom be 
created, and there is now a relation of distance, position, 
direction — that is, there is space. 

The only remark made by Dr. Porter which has a di- 
rect bearing on this important discussion is that " Space 
and time are neither relations nor correlations, but corre- 
lates to beings and events " (" The Human Intellect," 
p. 568). It may seem an act of presumption in one 
who has spent much less time on these studies than Dr. 
Porter to offer a criticism on this final deliverance. But 
when he tells us that space and time are neither relations 
nor correlations, after having through four pages " On the 
relations of space and time concepts to motion " labored 
to sustain the doctrine of Trendelenberg that " the cate- 
gories of space and time are derived from the universal 
and all-pervading motion which is common to both" (p. 
526), we confess we are amazed. Let it be granted that 
the spatial and temporal relations can be, in their last 
analysis, resolved into motion, still the question remains, 
How can we conceive of motion except as the result of 
force ? — that is, of power actually exerted somewhere. In 
the last analysis, therefore, the relations of space, time, 

1 " Philosophy of the Infinite," p. 331. 



THE CREATION. g^ 

and motion are resolved into "the relation of causality." 
The conclusion seems inevitable that time and space are 
correlations of finite existences. Annihilate all finite ex- 
istences and finite duration, and there is neither space nor 
time — that is, there is " pure nothing." Or, more properly, 
there is the Omnipotence, the Immensity, the Eternity of 
God, whose causation may give existence to finite beings 
with all their necessary as well as contingent relations. 
" Whoever maintains a beginning of the world must also 
adopt a beginning of time, for only worldly being, which 
'according to its notion has not its around in itself, but is 

O CD ' 

an originated being, can at all have time for the form of 
its existence." 1 

And now, in summing up, let us see if we can clearly 
disengage three classes of distinct notions : 

1. The notion of concrete and finite extension as the 
essential quality of matter ; and the notion of finite dura- 
tion as a quality of changeful dependent existence. 

2. The notion of space as the relation of co-existing 
material things — that is, the relation of position, distance, 
direction, hereness, thereness ; and the notion of time as 
the relation of successive existence — that is, the relation 
of priority and posteriority, of past, present, and future. 

3. The notion of immensity and eternity — that is, an 
absolute continuity and illimitability of being, the absence 
of all limit, all quantity, all beginning and end, the at- 
tributes of the unconditioned Being. Let us endeavor 
sharply to define these notions, which unhappily are too 
often confounded. 

1. The external senses in their different degrees, espe- 
cially sight and touch, give us the knowledge of objects 
that are extended and figured. The body I grasp with 

1 Miiller, " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. p. 243. 

F 



82 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the hand or survey with the eye has limits, outlines, 
angles, surfaces — that is, it has more or less exten- 
sion. The inner sense gives us the knowledge of the 
changes and successions of our mental life. But, amid 
all these changes, I am conscious there is a something 
which endures. What is that permanent something 
which I apprehend under all the varying mental states ? 
It is that principle of personal identity which I call / — 
myself. To feel and know that I am the same person 
under all modifications of my mental activity is to en- 
dure. Through the aid of memory, which enables me to- 
recall past mental states, and the immediate consciousness 
of personal existence, through all these changes I obtain 
the notion of duration. The notions of Extension and 
Duration are clear to my mind. 

2. Besides the notion of extended bodies, I have also 
the notion of position, distance, direction among extended 
bodies. They exist in various relations to each other ; 
they are here or there, above or below, near at hand or in- 
definitely remote. It may be the distance between two 
particles of dust in the sunbeam, or the walls of the room, 
or between the earth and the sun, or between the sun and 
the outermost planet of our system, or between the earth 
and the remotest star which twinkles at the outposts of 
the universe. Position, distance, direction are all rela- 
tions. And to all these relations I prefer, with Sir John 
Herschel, to give the generic name space. 1 Then I have 
no confusion of thought, and no difficulty or contradiction 
in using the language of Cousin, Hamilton, and McCosh, 
when they speak of " determinate and limited space," 
" particular spaces," " parts of space," and " proportions 
of space." 

1 " Familiar Lectures," p. 455. 



THE CREATION. g3 

Along with the notion of duration (and succession of 
different states in the same existence), I am conscious that 
this duration is capable of admeasurement by common 
standards, and ideally divided into periods of longer or 
shorter duration. This duration may be measured by 
successive states of consciousness, or facts of domestic his- 
tory, or, better still, by the succession of day and night, 
or the relative position of the sun in the heavens, the rev- 
olutions of the moon around the earth, or of the earth 
around the sun. These are really world-measurements 
of duration. Since, then, duration can be measured from 
any point and in any proportions, it is clear that measure- 
ment is a purely relative thing — a relation. Of any such 
thing as " pure time " or " absolute time " we have no 
knowledge. Time is the measure of finite duration — the 
correlation of things successive. And if I confine myself 
to this usage, I am under no necessity of using the par- 
adoxical language of many philosophers, " time is eter- 
nity !" 

3. We come, lastly, to the notions or ideas of immensity 
and eternity, and we ask, Are these necessary ideas of 
the reason, or can they be confounded with the relations 
of co-existence and succession on the one hand, or with 
the attributes of finite extension and duration on the 
other ? 

This is not a mere question of systems of philosophy 
or theology — it is a question of facts. Are the ideas of 
Absolute Infinity and Eternity necessary intuitions of the 
reason ? The world of sense-perception,' the world of sci- 
ence, is phenomenal and contingent. All that is offered 
to our observation is limited and temporal. The uni- 
verse surrendered to our science is one of quantities and 
quantitative relations. It is conditioned by number and 



84 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

form. Its extensions, spaces, and motions are capable of 
admeasurement. Its worlds and systems are subject to 
numeration. The phenomena of the universe are all sub- 
ject to change, they have beginning, succession, and end. 
But beyond the notions of the limited and the temporal, 
we find in consciousness the ideas of the illimitable and 
the eternal; the latter always appearing to reason as the 
necessary correlates of the former. The finite necessarily 
supposes the infinite ; the temporal necessarily supposes 
the eternal. The two classes of notions are essentially 
different, and defy all attempts to generalize them under 
higher concepts. The infinite is not the totality of finite 
existences ; eternity is not the prolongation of finite dura- 
tions. Immensity and eternity are absolutely and uncon- 
ditionally necessary ideas. I can easily conceive the non- 
existence of any finite thing. I can, without any contra- 
diction, suppose the whole world to be destroyed. All 
which has a derived and a dependent existence may cease 
to be. But we can not conceive the source of all exist- 
ence annihilated. There is one notion which it is im- 
possible for me to annihilate in thought, and that is the 
notion of absolute being — underived, unconditioned, 
changeless, eternal being. Despite the destruction of all 
determinate extension and all finite duration, there re- 
mains a Supreme Reality, unlimited, unbeginning, and 
endless, as an absolute necessity of thought. 

Here, then, are two absolute ideas found in the depths 
of consciousness — the ideas of. immensity and eternity; 
ideas as real, as natural, and as necessary as the notions of 
extension and duration. Immensity and Eternity are at- 
tributes of God. Extension and Duration are attributes 
of finite, dependent existence. Space and time are rela- 
tions between co-existing things and successive events. 



THE CREATION. S5 

If by this somewhat abstruse and, perhaps, too lengthy 
discussion we have succeeded in proving that Time and 
Space are simply relations between co-existent things and 
successive events, which, apart from things and events, 
have no reality, and are " nothing but the bare possibil- 
ity of body and change," then we have disentangled the 
Christian doctrine of absolute creation from the embar- 
rassment occasioned by supposing " the coeval and co-eter- 
nal existence of Time and Space as the necessary condi- 
tions of the Divine activity." If Time and Space are re- 
lations between things and events, then God, as the al- 
mighty cause of things and relations, is the efficient cause 
of space and time, and the creative act was not condi- 
tioned by them. 

The affirmation of the necessary existence of Space, 
Time, and Number as co-eternal with and independent of 
God, 1 prepared the way for and rendered plausible the 
further affirmation of " the coeval existence of matter as 
the condition and medium of the Divine agency and man- 
ifestation." 2 For if Space, Time, and Number are eternal, 
why may not Matter be eternal f But why stop with the 
assertion of the eternity of Space, Time, Number, and 
Matter? " If we admit that there may be something un- 
caused, there is no reason to assume a cause of any thing." 
If we admit the eternity of Matter, how can we deny the 
eternity of Force ? We can not conceive of the existence 
of substance without some properties or qualities, and of 
all the properties of matter, gravitation or weight seems 
to approach nearest to an essential, necessary quality. 
And if we concede the eternity of matter and gravitating 
force, why not admit the eternity of law — that is, " uni- 

1 Martineau's " Essays," 1st Series, p. 158. 

2 Martineau's " Essays," 1st Series, p. 161. 



86 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

formity of properties and relations ;" uniformity in "the 
results arising from the motions and changes of matter ? 
And when so much is granted, why not grant that a con- 
sequent Order of the universe must also be eternal ? why 
not grant that the universe is an infinite succession of or- 
derly phenomena without a beginning and end % After 
the first concession that matter is uncreated and eternal, 
how can any one refute the doctrine of Hume that the 
universe never had a beginning, and that under some one 
or another possible phase — amid the infinite possibility of 
phases — it is both eternal and infinite ? How, after this 
admission, can we deny that the universe is " a series of 
events existing eternally in a state of order without a 
cause other than the eternally inherent laws of matter V 

It would be easy to show that all those writers on 
" Natural Theology " who have made the least concession 
in regard to this fundamental question have involved 
themselves in entanglements and difficulties from which 
they could not logically extricate themselves. 

Dr. Chalmers contends that the mere existence of mat- 
ter with its properties and laws would not involve the af- 
firmation of an Absolute First Cause. The proof, he says, 
lies solely in the disposition, collocation, and arrangement 
of these properties and laws in their relation to each other, 
so as to secure harmonious and beneficial results. So far 
as the argument for the existence of God is concerned, he 
provisionally concedes that matter, with all its laws, may 
he eternal. 1 True, he says that he grants the eternity of 
matter simply for the purposes of his argument. But 
what right has he to grant it for the purposes of his argu- 
ment, and then to deny it in obedience to the decisive af- 
firmation of a "well-accredited revelation?" If Divine 

1 "Institutes of Theology," vol. i. pp. 7G, 79. 



THE CREATION. 87 

revelation teaches the non-eternity of matter, this is for the 
Christian a truth — a fundamental truth ; and whoever sur- 
renders or compromises a fundamental position must final- 
ly fail in his management of the Theistic argument. The 
intuitions of reason and the doctrines of revelation are 
but separate rays from the one eternal fountain of light ; 
and if we ignore or compromise the fundamental truths 
of revelation, reason will refuse to place her imprimatur 
upon and give her indorsement to our lame and halting 
proofs. This is strikingly illustrated by Chalmers's failure 
to " construct an argument for a God " that satisfies the 
reason, after he has affirmed " the eternity of matter for the 
purpose of bringing out his conclusion " (p. 79). But Dr. 
Chalmers can not stop with the simple concession that 
matter is eternal. Only grant its necessary existence, and 
" it is impossible to imagine that along with existence it 
should not have properties . . . and laws" (p. 75). Now, 
if the admission that a finite, composite, divisible sub- 
stance may be self -existent, and have eternal properties 
and laws, is not logically inconsistent, how can he show 
that these properties and laws in their eternal action and 
reaction are not adequate to the production of a series of 
phenomena which to our understanding may appear har- 
monious ? Can eternal laws produce any thing but order? 
The existing order of things is the only possible order that 
could arise from the necessary operation of eternal laws, 
and there can be no choice, design, or purpose in the uni- 
verse. Collocation, arrangement, adaptation, are only sub- 
jective anthropomorphic conceptions we impose upon nat- 
ure. If matter and its laws are eternal, how will Chalmers 
extricate himself from this dilemma? By this admission 
he places a weapon in the hands of the anti-Theist, by which 
the latter may cut the teleological argument to pieces. 



38 THE TH El STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

My esteemed friend, Dr. Mahan, in his zeal to over- 
throw the ontological proof of the being of God, and to 
vindicate for the etiological proof the sole claim to valid- 
ity, has been betrayed into a similar inconsistency. That 
there is any a priori proof of the being of God is in his 
estimation a " wild chimera." " Formation from pre-ex- 
isting materials " constitutes " the exclusive basis " of Nat- 
ural Theology. 1 Matter, then, may be eternal, and an in- 
finite series of events existing in a state of order is con- 
ceivable and possible. At page 85 of his "Natural The- 
ology " he writes : " Mr. Hume has undeniably announced 
the truth as it is upon this subject, to wit, that the idea of 
a nature eternally existing in a state of order without a 
cause other than the eternally inhering laws of nature, is 
no more self-contradictory than the idea of an eternally 
existing and infinite mind who originated this order — a 

1 "Natural Theology," p. 23. 

The practice so common among writers of Natural Theology of fixing 
upon one line of proof of the being of God as the only valid method, and then 
disparaging and endeavoring to show the invalidity of all others, is highly 
reprehensible. The strongest arguments employed by the Atheists have 
been culled from the writings of these eccentric theologians. In the cele- 
brated public discussion between Mr. Holyoake, the leader of the Secularists 
in England, and Mr. Brindley, " On the existence of God," the most telling 
arguments of Mr. Holyoake were drawn from the standard works on Natural 
Theology. How much more rational and commendahle is the course of the 
philosopher : " There are different proofs of the existence of God. The con- 
soling result of my studies is that these different proofs are more or less 
strict in form, but they have all a depth of truth which needs only to be dis- 
engaged and put in a clear light in order to give incontestible authority. 
Every thing leads to God. There is no bad way of arriving at Him, but we 
go to Him by different paths." — Cousin, " History of Philosophy," vol. ii. 
p. 418. 

The argument for the being of a God in its completeness is at once Onto- 
logical and Cosmological, Etiological and Teleological. It is in the concur- 
rence and synthesis of these separate but harmonious lines of proof that we 
have an unanswerable demonstration. Eor ourselves, we are convinced, 
with Neitzsch, that the Ontological proof is first and last ; they who seek to 
invalidate this cut the ground from under all the rest. 



THE CREATION. 89 

mind existing without a cause." After several pages dis- 
figured by a labored effort to prove the possibility and 
logical consistency of an " infinite series of events existing 
in an orderly succession," he sums up with the imperious 
assertion that " the argument against the possibility of an 
infinite series of events stands revealed as a logical ab- 
surdity " (p. 88). 

It is our deliberate conclusion, however, that the " logical 
absurdity " lies in the position of Dr. Mahan. " The idea 
of order in the Finite without a cause is no more self-con- 
tradictory than the idea of order in the Infinite without 
a cause." Mark the two points which stand out clearly 
in this strange assertion. First, the Finite here is nature — 
that is, matter and its laws. Secondly, the Infinite is the 
Supreme Mind. Dr. Mahan asserts that this finite may 
be conceived as eternally existing — that is, as existing 
through infinite time; in other words, the finite may be 
infinite. For a tiling or being, or for a series of things or 
beings, to be at once " finite " and " infinite " Dr. Mahan 
says " is not self-contradictory." This is on a par with 
the logic of Hegel — " Contradictory opposites are iden- 
tical." Again, we ask, Is there no difference between 
" finite matter " and " Infinite Mind ?" Is not matter 
composite, extended, divisible, and limited ? Is not In- 
finite Mind unextended, incomposite, indivisible, and il- 
limitable % The mere existence of matter does not neces- 
sarily involve the idea of Order. There are nebulae ex- 
isting in the universe " utterly devoid of all symmetry of 
form, . . . irregular and capricious in their shapes and con- 
volutions to a most extraordinary degree." 1 Wherever 
order is presented, we instinctively and infallibly ascribe 
it to mind. Mind for all of us, and forever, is the anal- 

1 Herschel's " Outlines of Astronomy," p. 511. 



90 THE Til EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ogon and exponent of Order in every sphere, irrespective 
of all knowledge on our part as to when or how it had a 
beginning. 

Furthermore, on the main issue we affirm briefly — if 
matter is extended, it is measurable ; if it is measurable, 
it must have definite limits ; if it has definite limits, it 
can not be infinite. Now that which is finite, limited, 
quantitive, conditioned, can not be self -existent, can not 
be infinite. Infinitude is illimitation by kind, quantity, 
or degree — illimitation by temporal, spatial, or numerical 
relations. An " infinite series " is therefore a contradiction 
in adjecto. "As every number, although immeasurably 
and inconceivably great, is impossible without unity as its 
basis, so every series, being itself a number, is impossible 
unless a first term is given as its commencement. . . . Even 
if it should be allowed that the series has no first term. 
but has originated ab ceterno, it must always at each in- 
stant have a last term ; the series as a whole can not be 
infinite." 1 If one thing more can be added to the num- 
ber of existing things in the universe, then it is not in- 
fiuite in number or in extent. In short, a series implies 
a succession of terms, or members, or links ; if there is a 
last term, there must be a first term ; if there is a last 
link, there must be a first. Through an Unconditioned 
First Cause, originating and conditioning all the mem- 
bers thereof, is a series conceivable or possible. To apply 
to number or quantity the designation of infinitude is 
surely the " absurdity " in presence of which all others 
pale. We grant that the term "infinite series" is em- 
ployed by mathematicians in a loose manner, to denote 
that which exceeds our powers of mensuration or concep- 
tion, but which nevertheless lias bounds or limits — the in- 

1 North American Revieiv, October, 1864, p. 428. 



THE CREATION. 91 

definite, but not the infinite; 1 such loose use of terms in 
philosophy, however, is inadmissible. The final reply of 
Dr. Mahan, " that the series under consideration is one 
which by hypothesis has no first," is the extreme of ab- 
surdity. It is as though a man should talk of a " round 
square " or a " bilinear figure," and when remonstrated 
with as to the contradictory character of these phrases, 
should reply, " Yes, but the ' square ' under consideration 
is one which by hypothesis is i round,' aud the i figure ' 
is one which by hypothesis is formed by ' two lines P ' : 
Men may make all kinds of strange hypotheses, but the 
strangest of all is that of an infinite-finite. 

These incautious writers of " Natural Theology " all as- 
sert, as a fundamental doctrine, that God is the Absolute 
and Unconditioned Cause. We might ask, Whence do 
they derive this fundamental truth that God is " absolute 
and unconditioned," if not by an a priori rational intui- 
tion ? We let that pass, however, to press the more per- 
tinent question — How can God be " the absolute cause," 
if matter is coeval with and independent of Him ? And 
how can He be the "unconditioned cause," if space, time, 
number, and matter necessarily exist as the conditions of 
the Divine agency and manifestation ? If matter, with 
its essential properties and laws, exist independent of the 
Deity, do not these impose conditions upon the action of 
the Deity, and determine it to certain necessary modes ? 
If so, God can not be the unconditioned Cause. Instead 
of one supreme, sole First Principle, there are at least two 

1 "By finite we generally mean that which is within reach, or may be 
♦brought within reach of our senses. . . . The powers, therefore, of our senses 
and mind place the limit to the finite, but those magnitudes which severally 
transcend these limits, by reason of their being too great or too small, we 
call infinite and infinitesimal." — Price, " Infinitesimal Calculus," vol. i. pp. 
12, 13. 



92 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

principles, God and Necessity, and may be more. No 
system of Natural Theology can maintain its integrity 
and consistency except "by holding fast to the funda- 
mental postulate — God is the Absolute and Uncondi- 
tioned Cause of all things, of matter and form, quality 
and relation, purpose and law. 

And now, in conclusion, we may properly ask, Whence 
arises the necessity for assuming the coeval and co-eternal 
existence of matter besides and independent of God ? 
Why should the theologian feel himself under the neces- 
sity of prejudicing the Biblical conception of Creation by 
any such concession ? The only reasons we have seen as- 
signed are, first, that " creation out of nothing is discredit- 
ed by the discoveries of modern science ;" * secondly, that 
" an absolute origination is inconceivable and self-destruc- 
tive." 2 In attempting an estimate of the weight of these 
reasons, we would first suggest that the question of abso- 
lute creation has been prejudiced by the persistent em- 
ployment of the old formula of " creation out of noth- 
ing," as though " nothing " contained the cause of exist- 
ence, and the universe was developed out of nothing. 
The Christian Fathers, who first employed the phrase ktigiq 
Ik rov /uri ovtocj, never indulged in such representations. 
The idea they sought to express was that the production of 
"otherness" the awarding of existence to something besides 
Himself, was an absolutely free act of God which was not 
conditioned by any thing external to Himself — in a word, 
that God is the positive original ground of all existence. 

But who shall decide that this doctrine has been dis- 
credited by the progress of science ? What special dis- 
covery of modern science has so revealed to us the ul- 

1 Mavtineau. "Essays, 1st Series, p. 1G1. 

2 Hamilton, "Metaphysics," vol. ii. p. 539. 



the creation: 93 

timate constitution of matter, that we can affirm its ab- 
solute reality and its eternal existence? Nay, are the 
most advanced physicists and physiologists agreed as to 
whether, apart from our subjective, ideal conceptions, 
matter has any reality ? If we are not utterly mistaken, 
the entire tendency of science is to reduce matter from 
the rank of entities to the rank of phenomena. " The 
old speculations of Philosophy, which cut the ground from 
Materialism by showing how little we know of matter, are 
now being daily reinforced by the subtle analysis of the 
physiologist, the chemist, and the electrician. Under 
that analysis matter dissolves and disappears, surviving 
only as the phenomena of Force." 1 We offer no opinion 
as to the validity of this new doctrine, but are sure it is 
the doctrine of modern science as represented by Fara- 
day, Owen, McYicar, Bayma, Exley, Wallace, Poisson, 
Poyntong, Laycock, and, we think, Huxley. If modern 
science has resolved all our external sensations, even the 
feeling of resistance, into "phenomena of Force," then, ac- 
cording to the doctrine of Mr. Martineau, it had a begin- 
ning — "phenomena demand causation. . . . Supreme En- 
tity needs no cause." " The universe resolves itself into 
a perpetual genesis," and " the Tlieist is perfectly justified 
in treating it as disqualified for self-existence." 2 

Sir William Hamilton contends that " an absolute com- 
mencement " is inconceivable. All the conception we can 
possibly form of Creation is " merely as the evolution of 
new forms of existence by the fiat of the Deity." " Let 
us suppose the very crisis of creation. Can we realize it 
to ourselves in thought, that the moment after the uni- 
verse came into manifested being there was a larger com- 
plement of existence in the universe and its Author to- 

1 Argyll, "Reign of Law," p. 1 17. 2 " Essays," 1st Series, p. 20G. 



94 THE T HEIST I C CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

gether than there was the moment before in the Deity 
himself alone ? This we can not imagine." 1 

There are, we presume, very few Hamiltonians who are 
prepared to indorse this bold statement of their master. 
Mansel, the editor and annotator of his " Lectures," has 
very distinctly and emphatically expressed his dissent. 
" Whether it be true or not that we can not conceive the 
quantity of existence to be increased or diminished, there 
is at any rate no such inability as regards the quantity of 
matter. It may be true as a fact that no material atom 
has been added to the world since the Creation ; but the 
assertion, however true, is certainly not necessary. The 
power which created once must be conceived as able to 
create again, whether that ability is actually exercised or 
not. The same conclusion is still more evident when 
we proceed from the consideration of matter to that of 
mind. Of matter, we maintain that the creation of new 
portions \$> perfectly conceivable — as a result, at least, if not 
as a process ; of mind, we believe that such creation actu- 
ally takes place. Every man who comes into the world 
comes into it as a distinct individual, having a personality 
and consciousness of his own, and that personality is a dis- 
tinct accession to the number of persons previously exist- 
ing. . . . Every new person that comes into the world is a 
new existence." 2 Hence we are not justified in asserting 
that all actual existences are only different modes of one 
identical reality. We can not merely conceive, but we 
know, as a primary fact of consciousness, that the sum of 
existence, of personal conscious being, which is the most 
fundamental reality, may be increased in the universe. 3 

1 "Lectures," vol. ii. p. 406. 2 " Prolegomena," p. 267-200. 

3 See Locke's "Human Understanding," bk. iv. ch. x., where a similar 
line of argument is pursued. 



THE C RE AT I OX. 95 

"We readily confess that the act of creation — that is, 
causing wholly new existence — is utterly incomprehensible 
to us ; so are thousands of other things. I am told by 
the physicist that eight hundred billions of ether-impulses 
impinge on the retina of the eye in a second of time to 
produce the sensation of deep violet ;* and I believe it, but 
at the same time it is to me incomprehensible. My reason 
affirms that the First Cause must be infinite ; and I believe 
it, but I can not comprehend Infinity. No logician of the 
present day teaches that comprehensibility is a test of 
truth. Is our finite capacity of conceiving or of doing a 
standard for Omnipotence % The only question here in- 
volved is, Can Infinite Power produce that mode of being • 
we call matter % Does such an exercise of Infinite Power 
involve a contradiction ? I conscientiously submit this 
question to my own reason, and I confess I am unable 
to see any contradiction. To my experiential knowledge 
matter presents " the essential characteristics at once of 
a manufactured article and a subordinate agent." 2 
" This," says the distinguished Prof. Maxwell, " precludes 
the idea of its being eternal and self -existent. ... It 
must have been created." 3 The notion of its origina- 
tion by a Power which is unconditioned and every w T ay 
unlimited, satisfies my reason, and affords the best solu- 
tion of the problem of its existence. That it is self-exist- 
ent, independent, eternal — " a second other God " — is di- 
rectly contradictory. The original, primitive fountain of 
existence is Mind. This must stand at the fountain-head. 
God is the sole and absolute Cause of all things — of time, 

* Schellen, " Spectrum Analysis," p. 45. 

2 Sir John Herschel, " Natural Philosophy," § 28. 

3 " On Molecules," Lecture at the British Association at Bradford, in Na- 
ture, vol. viii. p. 441. 



96 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and all temporal relations ; of space, and all spatial rela- 
tions ; of the primordial element, and all its properties. 

The creative act was not conditioned by Time or Space 
or Matter. 1 

1 " God is not merely spirit, but He has upon Himself a realistic nature. God 
did not create the world out of an absolute nothing. The something out of 
which God created it are his eternal potentialities — not merely logical (merely 
conceived by God), but at the same time also physical (essentially in God 
existing) potentialities. In these Svvafxtig God possesses both the something 
out of which He makes the world, and also the forces, instruments, and means 
by which He produces it. In this sense it is literally true : All things are of 
God (Rom. xi. 33). This admission of a supramaterial physis in God — this 
spiritual realism — furnishes not only an escape from the errors of a lifeless 
materialism and of an abstract spiritualism, but is the synthesis of the par- 
tial truth that is in both." — Bibliotheca Sacra, January, 1873, p. 191. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 97 



CHAPTER IV. 

CREATION. — THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 
" The laws of nature can not account for their own origin." — J. S. Mill. 

Creation was the absolutely free act of God, uncondi- 
tioned by any pre-existing thing. Matter with its prop- 
erties and forms, its temporal, spatial, and numerical re- 
lations ; Spirit with its life and feeling, its ideas and laws 
— these had all their origin in the creative Word of God. 
Whatever is, and is not God, is the creature of God.' This 
is the Biblical conception of Creation. 

Origination and formation are so immediately and insep- 
arably united in the Biblical notion of Creation that the 
revelation of the one is the revelation of the other, and we 
can not deny the former without logically involving our- 
selves in the denial of the latter. Tie who gave to matter 
its forms must have given it its essential properties, upon 
which many of its forms depend; and He who gave to 
matter its essential properties must have given it origina- 
tion, for how can we conceive of substance devoid of all 
attributes ? Whether, therefore, the account in Genesis 
" be found to have in view, mainly or solely, a universal or 
a partial creation; whether the pri?icipium there mention- 
ed be the particular beginning of the special work there 
described, or the jyrincvpium principiorum — the begin- 
ning of all beginnings — the Bible is in either case a pro- 
test against the dogma of the eternity of the world, or of 
the eternity of matter/' ' 

1 Lange's Commentary, "Preliminary Essay," p. 126. 



98 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

This notion of Creation as a pure supernatural origina- 
tion is the only one which reason can accept as adequate, 
satisfactory, and complete. Formation without origination 
is a conception of creation which is logically incomplete. 
It fails to meet the demand of reason for an Absolute First 
Principle adequate to the production and explanation of 
all existence. There are outlying elements of the problem 
which it can not grasp in the unity of a Fundamental Idea. 
Matter with its properties, Number, Time, and Space, with 
their relations, are still lying outside of its field, and set- 
ting themselves up as self -existent and independent real- 
ities, which by their apparent or conceded independence 
must necessarily impose conditions upon the Divine activ- 
ity, and perpetually embarrass the human mind in its ef- 
fort to think of God as the free and unconditioned Cause. 
Reason demands that absolute unity shall stand at the 
fountain-head of being, and every system of philosophy 
which allows of more than one self - existent and inde- 
pendent and underived reality bewilders and staggers the 
understanding, and vitiates all its processes of thought. 
After this concession every argument for the being of 
God seems to us a jpetitio princijni. 

Reason and Revelation, then, are agreed in the affirma- 
tion that the Universe, both as to its matter and form, had 
its origin in the creative Word and Will of God. How far 
this affirmation is sustained by the & posteriori inductions 
of physical science is a question of the deepest interest, 
and to this we now invite attention. 

This question naturally divides itself into two subordi- 
nate inquiries, one relating to the form, the other to the 
matter of the universe, which may be thus presented : 

1. Had the existing Order of the universe a beginning? 
Had the forms, relations, laws, and harmonies of the uni- 
verse a beginning? 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 99 

2. Had that which is the ground of all forms, the subject 
of all changes and relations, a beginning ? Had the Mat- 
ter of the universe a beginning ? 

In regard to the first question, we remark in general : 
The common conviction of our race in all ages has been 
that the existing order of the universe had a beginning, 
and will have an end. 

It has been affirmed by some mental philosophers that 
mankind has an intuitive and natural belief in the uniform- 
ity of nature, and the consequent stability and permanence 
of the universe. Reid, the father of the Scottish school of 
philosophy, says, " God has implanted in the human mind 
an original principle by which he believes in and expects 
the continuance of the course of nature." It is a matter 
of surprise that so acute a thinker should have fallen into 
so flagrant an error. He has evidently confounded our 
natural belief in causation with our acquired experiences 
of uniformity. That " like causes will always produce like 
effects" is a native intuition ; but that " the same causes will 
always continue in operation, and always operate with the 
same intensity," is a mere presumption. Our faith in the 
uniformity and permanent stability of nature is an induc- 
tion from experience, and not a natural and necessary in- 
tuition of the mind. 1 

Far from entertaining a belief in the permanence and 
stability of the present order of nature, the great mass of 
mankind in earlier times regarded the system of things as 
liable to constant interference on the part of supernatural 
powers. In all ages of the world the existing order of nat- 
ure has been regarded as temporal, and the flow of terres- 
trial and even of cosmical events has been conceived as 
liable to be broken up by universal revolutions. The his- 

1 See Whewell's " History of Scientific Ideas," vol. ii. p. 287. 



100 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

torical evidence of this universal belief in "geological catas- 
trophes" has been fully brought forward by Dr.Winchell 
in his " Sketches of Creation." 1 Traditions of a primal 
chaos and of periodic cataclysms are found among the 
Greeks, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chaldseans, Hebrews, Per- 
sians, Arabians, Hindoos, South Sea Islanders, and the Az- 
tecs. And among those nations in which the physical sci- 
ences have been cultivated the same conceptious are still 
entertained. As science has extended our acquaintance 
with natural phenomena in all parts of the earth, and be- 
yond the earth into the celestial spaces, men have gradually 
attained a belief in the uniformity of nature. But the doc- 
trine of periodical catastrophes has not been abandoned by 
scientific men. "When men now speak of the uniformity 
of nature, they use that term in a very large sense, and 
even loose sense, as including catastrophes and convulsions 
of an intense and extensive kind; 2 and, as we shall pres- 
ently see, the most advanced and exact modern science 
teaches us to contemplate a grand final catastrophe in 
which all life will be extinguished on the earth, and the 
globe itself shall be " ensepulchred in an extinguished 
sun." The attempt, therefore, to represent the belief in the 
uniformity of nature as a universal and necessary truth is 
vain. We have no & priori ground for believing in the 
permanence of the universe. 

The common conviction of our race that the universe 
had a beginning, that it has been the subject of great catas- 
trophal changes, and that it will finally come to an end, 
is not to be regarded as an insignificant fact. As Herbert 
Spencer justly remarks, "We must presume that beliefs 
that have long existed and have been widely diffused . . . be- 

1 Ch. xxxiv. 

2 Whewell's "History of Inductive Sciences," vol. ii. p. 593. 



CREATION— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. \Q\ 

liefs that are perennial and universal . . . have some founda- 
tion, and some amount of verity." ' Universal beliefs must 
rest on some common ground. That common ground can 
not be experience. A belief which was as clearly and con- 
fidently held four thousand years ago as it is held to-day 
can not have been gradually attained by successive gener- 
alizations. It is grounded on the fundamental antithesis 
between Becoming and Being, phenomena and reality, the 
changeful and the permanent, the finite and the infinite, 
the temporal and the eternal, which has been a necessary 
form of thought to all minds in all ages. The human mind 
has never been able to conceive these contradictory oppo- 
sites as predicable of the same subject. The universe as 
presented to sense is a perpetual genesis, a ceaseless change; 
therefore it can not be permanent. It is a time-march of 
phenomena ; therefore it can not be external. It is limited 
by quantity and quantitative relations ; therefore it can not 
be infinite. Thus reason has always conceived the universe 
as having a beginning, and has confidently predicted that 
it will come to an end. All systems of philosophy, and, 
indeed, many systems of religion, have been attempts to 
explain "the beginning or origin of things" — that is, they 
have been " a priori theories of the universe." 2 Even 
Atheism itself comes under this definition : it is an at- 
tempt to explain the origin of the universe and of man 
on the a priori assumption of the self-existence of Mat- 
ter, Space, and Motion. Thus all systems of thought, an- 
cient and modern, have had their birth in the innate con- 
viction that there is something to be explained, and that 
human reason is adequate to the task of furnishing an ex- 
planation. They all assume that the universe had a be- 

1 Spencer, " First Principles," p. 4. 

2 Spencer, "First Principles," p. 43. 



102 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ginning, and their one. central problem is, "How are we 
to conceive aright the origin of things ?" 

In what does this differ from the problem of modern 
science? It is true that Comte would limit positive sci- 
ence to " the study of phenomena in their orders of co- ex- 
istence, resemblance, and succession," an idea which the 
word " positive " by no means conveys. And Tyndall as- 
serts that " the man of science, if he confine himself with- 
in his own limits, will give no answer to the question " as ( 
to the origin of things. At the same time he admits that 
"he can clearly show that the present state of things may 
be derivative." ! The great masters of science, however, 
refuse to acknowledge any such arbitrary limitations. 
"The essence of science," says Sir William Thomson, 
"consists in inferring antecedent conditions, and antici- 
pating future evolutions from phenomena which have act- 
ually come under observation." 2 If this be the essence of 
science, then we presume that it is competent to throw 
some light on the primitive condition of the universe, and 
give some prevision of its future destiny. Did not Comte 
himself teach that the solar system was once all nebula, 
and that it will yet collapse into an exhausted and extin- 
guished sun ? 3 Is it true, then, that physical science by its 
inductive inference of " antecedent conditions," does really 
furnish a solid confirmation of the a priori and native 
conviction of our race that the universe had a beoinning ? 
Then most assuredly even physical science is carrying us 
forward toward the ultimate unity of all truth — a unity 
which can be realized perfectly only by the constant mnt- 

1 "Fragments of Science," p. 12. 

2 Inaugural Address before the British Association of Science, in Nature, 
vol. iv. p. 269. 

3 "Positive Philosophy," vol. i. p. 206. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 103 

ual determination of d priori and empirical knowledge, 
a synthesis and equipoise of physical and metaphysical 
truths. 

This is the most obvious tendency of modern science in 
its relation to the question under consideration. Nothing- 
is more remarkable in the present aspect of physical re- 
search than what has been aptly called " the transcendent- 
al character of its results." As George Henry Lewes ob- 
serves, "the fundamental ideas of modern science are as 
transcendental as any of the axioms of ancient philos- 
ophy." 1 Palsetiological science in general has advanced 
by sure and steady steps, through careful observation and 
experiment, inductive inference, and the application of 
exact mathematical calculus to the recognition of the 
truth long ago announced by Paul : " The things which 
are seen are temporal; the things which are not seen are 
eternal? Dynamical Geology, Astronomical Palsetiology, 
Cosmogony, Molecular Physics, Abstract Dynamics, have 
all landed in the same inevitable conclusion that " the ex- 
isting order of things had a beginning." Sir William 
Thomson's doctrine of the " Dissipation of Energy " leads 
us, by sure steps of deductive reasoning, to the necessary 
future of the universe — necessary, that is, if physical laws 
remain unchanged — "so it enables us distinctly to say 
that the present order of things has not been evolved 
through infinite past time by the agency of laws now at 
work, but must have had a distinctive beginning, a state 
beyond which we are totally unable to penetrate — a state 
which must have been produced by other than the now 
acting causes? 2 

1 "Philosophy of Aristotle," p. 66. 

2 Prof. P. G. Tait, M.A., opening Address at the Edinburgh Meeting of 
the British Association of Science, in Nature, vol. iv. p. 271. See also Prof. 
Maxwell's Address at the Liverpool Meeting, in Nature, vol. ii. p. 422. 



104 THE Til EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The science of Geology reduces all terrestrial phenom- 
ena to the great law of finite duration. If there be one 
scientific induction which may be fairly pronounced le- 
gitimate and irrefragable, it is this one — that the existing 
terrestrial economy had a beginning. u All organic exist- 
ence, recent or extinct, vegetable or animal, had a begin- 
ning ; there was a time when they were not. The geolo- 
gist can indicate that time, if not by years, at least by pe- 
riods, and show what were its relations to the periods that 
went before and that came after." He can carry us 
back to the time when man did not exist upon the earth, 
when no mammals existed ; to the time when no birds, no 
reptiles, no fishes existed — when even Huxley's proto- 
plasm had no being ; " when all creation, from its centre 
to its circumference, was a creation of dead inorganic mat- 
ter," 1 and when there was not one spore or monad or 
atom of life throughout its dark domain. The form of 
the earth itself clearly reveals its history, and points us to 
that beginning. Its bulging equator and flattened poles, 
its pavement of congealed lava, which in some cases we 
name granite ; nay, the oldest water- worn pavement com- 
posed of the detritus of the igneous rocks — all attest the 
emergence of our planet from a molten condition, and a 
temperature 2 in which no life could exist ; so that even 
Tyndall admits "there are the strongest grounds for be- 
lieving that during a certain period of its history the earth 
was not, nor was it fit to be, the theatre of life." 3 

The earth was once a molten mass heated to incandes- 
cence — a self-luminous globe. On this point there is 

1 Miller's "Testimony of the Rocks," p. 221. 

2 Sir William Thomson supposes that temperature to have been at least 
7000° Fahr. See Thomson and Tait's "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 716. 

3 "Fragments of Science," p. 158. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 105 

scarcely any difference of opinion among scientific men. 
Furthermore, a large majority of modern scientists regard 
themselves as justified in the affirmation of a still anterior 
nebulous condition. If the nebular hypothesis is accept- 
ed, then we are required to contemplate a period when the 
earth did not exist, and when even the matter which now 
enters into its constitution was an undistinguished part of 
the nebula from which the whole solar system was evolved. 

Many exact observations and mathematical computa- 
tions as to the secular cooling of the earth give results 
which are in strict accordance with this theory of its prim- 
itive igneous condition. The observed facts clearly indi- 
cate that the earth is becoming, on the whole, cooler from 
age to age, and that the natural current of events is car- 
rying it inevitably to a state of total refrigeration. 1 The 
fossil remains now found within the arctic circle indicate 
that at a period, not extremely remote, tropical vegeta- 
tion flourished, and forms of animal life subsisted there 
which are now confined to the torrid zone. Mammoths 
lived in the now uninhabited polar regions, and tree-ferns 
and the tropical shell -fish found there a home. 2 The 
surface of the earth was then warmed by internal heat 
which since that period has waned ; that heat has been 
gradually dissipated in the surrounding space, as a red- 
hot ball suspended even in the warm air of a room must, 
according to the well-known laws of radiation and ab- 
sorption, necessarily part with its heat. 

Many experiments carefully conducted in our time show 
that the temperature of the earth increases with the depth 

1 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 714. Winchell, 
"Sketches of Creation," p. 407. 

2 Mayer, "Celestial Dynamics: Correlation and Conservation of Forces," 
p. 315. The palgeobot-anist Heer has described many species of tropical 
plants from Greenland, Alaska, and Spitzbergen. 



106 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

to which we penetrate : " In boring for the artesian well 
at Grenelle, which is 546 metres deep, it was observed that 
the temperature augmented at the rate of 1° Centigrade 
for every 30 metres. The same result was obtained by 
observations in the artesian well at Mondorf, in Luxem- 
burg; this well is 671 metres in depth, and its waters 
34° warm." As the result of many investigations in 
mines and borings, Sir William Thomson concludes that 
the average inference may be thus stated — there is on the 
whole about 1° Fahr. of elevation of temperature per 50 
British feet of descent. 1 If this increase is uniform — and 
we have no reason to suppose the contrary — then at the 
depth of 50 miles there exists, says Helmholtz, a heat 
sufficient to fuse all our minerals. 

The fact that the temperature of the earth increases 
with the depth necessarily involves a continual loss of 
heat from its interior by conduction outward into and 
through the upper crust, according to a well-known law 
of equilibrium of temperatures. " Hence, since the upper 
crust does not become hotter from year to year, there must 
be a secular loss of heat from the earth." 2 Thus it ap- 
pears that from the surface of the earth and the ocean, 
from thermal springs, and from three hundred active vol- 
canoes, the internal heat of the globe is incessantly radi- 
ated into space and is practically lost. 

Now this average loss of heat may be at least approxi- 
mately measured, and data are thereby furnished for de- 
termining the probable age of the earth, or, perhaps more 
correctly, its phase of life. If a man were to find a hot 

1 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 714. Observations 
on over forty artesian wells in Central Alabama show an average increase of 
temperature of 1° for every 47 feet of descent. — Dr. Winchell, in "Pro- 
ceedings of American Association," part ii. p. 102. 

2 Thomson and Tait, " Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 714. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 107 

ball of iron suspended in a room, and if he were carefully 
to observe the distribution of heat in the ball, he would 
be able easily to determine whether the ball were becom- 
ing hotter or cooler. If he found that the inside were hot- 
ter than the outside, he would conclude that the ball was 
cooling, and had therefore been hotter than when he found 
it. So far common-sense would be his guide ; but with 
the aid of mathematics, and some knowledge of the phys- 
ical properties of iron and air, he could go much further, 
and be able to calculate how hot the ball must have been 
at any given moment, if it had not been interfered with. 
Thus he would be able to say, The ball must have been 
hung up less than, say, five hours ago, for at that time the 
heat of the metal would have been such that it would 
have been in a state of fusion, and hence not capable of 
hanging as a solid mass. Precisely analogous reason- 
ing holds with regard to the earth : it is such a ball ; it is 
hotter inside than outside. The distribution of the heat 
near its surface is approximately known — 1° Fahr. of ele- 
vation in temperature for 50 British feet of descent. 1 The 
properties of the matter of which it is composed are ap- 
proximately known. The temperature at which granite 
rocks are fusible has been found to be about 7000° Fahr. 
This must therefore have been the temperature of the 
earth in its primitive igneous condition. From these data, 
Sir William Thomson has, by rigid mathematical calcula- 
tions, reached the conclusion that the consolidation of the 
earth's crust commenced 98,000,000 years ago. 2 The rates 
of increase of temperature inward in a great amount of 

1 Pouillet estimates that the heat which reaches the surface of the earth 
from its interior at 200 cuhic miles per diem. A cubic mile is the quantity 
of heat necessary to raise a cubic mile of water 1° Centigrade in tempera- 
ture. 

2 Thomson and Tait, " Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 716. 



108 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

average rock at various periods after the commencement 
of cooling, from the primitive heat of 7000° Fahr. ; are es- 
timated by Sir William Thomson as follows : 

"At 10,000 y'rs after commencement of cooling we should have 2° per ft. 

At 40,000 " " " " 1° " 

At 160,000 " " " " i° " 

At 4,000,000 " " " " J^° " 

At 100,000,000 " " " " JL° " 

It is therefore probable that for the last 96,000,000 
years the rate of increase of temperature under ground 
has gradually diminished from -^ to about ^ of a de- 
gree Fahrenheit per foot, and that the thickness of the 
crust through which any stated degree of cooling has 
been experienced has gradually increased during that 
period from -J- of its present thickness to what it now 
really is." J 

We freely admit our inability to sit in judgment on 
the validity of Sir William Thomson's conclusions. There 
are eminent geologists who entertain the opinion that 
the secular cooling of the earth has proceeded with 
much greater rapidity. It is, however, sufficient for our 
purpose that the most distinguished physicists of the day 
are agreed in teaching that the existing terrestrial econo- 
my had a beginning. 

There are other terrestrial changes which engage the at- 
tention of the geologist, and which force upon him the con- 
clusion that the existing terrestrial order had a beginning 
and must have an end. The surface of the earth has at in- 
tervals undergone great changes in the disposition of its 
land and water. That which is now dry land was once the 
ocean -bed, and the ocean waves now roll and murmur over 
what was once dry land. Sudden, or comparatively sudden, 

1 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 721. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 109 

catastrophes have extinguished the then existing creations, 
and the earth has been repeopled by new orders of life. 
Changes are now in progress which are gradually reduc- 
ing the populous regions of the earth to the condition of 
the Sahara of Africa and the Desert of Arabia. Upper 
and Lower Mesopotamia, the seat of the ancient mon- 
archies of Chaldsea, Assyria, and Babylonia, now present 
" vast tracts of arid plain — yellow, parched, and sapless — 
whicli have now become a bare and uninhabited desert." 
That ancient continent drained by the Colorado, once as 
fertile as the Valley of the Mississippi, is now the Great 
American Desert. "Every freshet burdens the streams 
with a load of sediment ; and the Mississippi bears daily 
to the Gulf material sufficient for a cotton plantation. 
From the slopes of the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mount- 
ains, from the broad acres over which the Mississippi and 
the Ohio reach their silver lingers to filch from the land, 
the sediments are stolen and carried away to the sea. The 
Western States are slowly traveling toward the Gulf. The 
hills are melting, and even the mountain cliffs are lower* 
ing ithder the ceaseless conflict with storm and frost. The 
summits of the Alleghanies have come down 3000 feet 
from their original altitudes. Give time enough, and the 
inequalities of the land will disappear. The ocean will 
be filled, and again assert a triumph over the continents 
which in the beginning were wrested from his dominion." 
Thus by the storms of heaven, the erosion of the atmos- 
phere, the blasting power of frost, the gnawing of the tidal 
wave, the mountains are being leveled, and the rocks and 
soils carried onward by the rivers to fill up the basin of the 
sea. The headlong rush of the avalanche, the murmur- 
ing of the brook, the roaring of the sea, the voice of the 
storm — all proclaim, " The things which are seen are tern- 



HO THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

poral !" — " The existing order of things had a beginning 
and must come to an end !" 1 

Astronomical Palsetiology reduces all celestial phenome- 
na to the same great law of finite duration. It teaches that 
planets, stars, systems, have their birth, their process of 
formation, their maturity, and their slow, protracted decay. 
The ephemeron perishes in an hour, man endures his three- 
score years and ten ; continents and islands have their ages 
and seons ; the stars of heaven are not exempt from this 
universal law of change and decay. According to the Neb- 
ular Hypothesis, the formation of this our system of sun, 
planets, and satellites was a process of the same kind as 
that which is still going forward in the heavens. One 
after another, nebulae condense into separate masses, which 
begin to revolve about each other in obedience to dynam- 
ical laws, and form systems of which our system is a ma- 
tured example. The present aspect of this planetary sys- 
tem is, however, but a passing phase in the history of its 
fleeting life. Our planet was once a self-luminous orb ; 
ft has now become opaque, and shines only with a bor- 
rowed light. The moon is probably in a state of total 
refrigeration ; its lunar air and lunar seas have been 
changed by intensity of cold into the solid form. 2 The 
sun itself is radiating heat into space in quantities incom- 
parably greater than it receives, and, as Helmholtz affirms, 
" the inexorable laws of mechanics show that its store of 
heat must be finally exhausted." 3 The planets in their 
motions encounter resistance from the interstellar ether; 
they must, therefore, necessarily move in shorter and short- 



1 See Winchell's "Sketches of Creation," chap, xxxvi. 

2 Proctor, " Other Worlds than Ours," p. 193. " More likely these have 
been totally absorbed by the lunar rocks." — Dr. Winched. 

3 " Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 245. 



CREATIOX.—TIIE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. \\\ 

er orbits, and at last fall into the sun. Thus the Nebular 
Hypothesis, combined with the doctrine of a resisting me- 
dium, teaches us that the solar system is wending its way, 
through successive changes, from a past of vaporous unity 
to a future of consolidated reunion. " It was once all neb- 
ula; it will, if left to physical agencies alone, collapse into 
an extinguished and exhausted sun." 

The astronomer who has been accustomed to regard 
every question relating to his favorite science as almost 
exclusively a problem in mathematics, will pronounce the 
above "a crude and adventurous" attempt on the part of 
the physicist to solve a problem which belongs to " the 
calculus of variations." Is the universe a Conservative or 
a Dissipative system ? Under its present laws will it run 
on forever, or will these very laws in the end lead to its 
subversion ? Will the mechanism of the heavens finally 
run down as surely as the weights of a clock run down 
to their lowest position, or are we authorized on scientific 
grounds to assert the permanent stability of the solar sys- 
tem ? This question has been earnestly discussed by the 
most distinguished astronomers since the da} T s of Newton. 
Until recently, the general conclusion — reached mainly on 
mathematical grounds — seems to have been that the uni- 
verse is a thoroughly conservative system, and that the ce- 
lestial machinery by a species of perpetual motion will 
run on forever. But must not all applied mathematical 
reasoning obtain its data from the exact observation of 
material facts ? The mathematician must also be a good 
natural philosopher ; he must lay his account with all 
the facts of the universe, otherwise his symbols have no 
contents, and his reasoning, however faultless in its proc- 
esses, will be fallacious in its results. The discoveries of 
the present century respecting the correlation of the va- 



112 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

rious forms of energy, the nature of the solar light and 
heat, the motions of comets, and especially the new doc- 
trine of the "Dissipation of Energy," have introduced new 
elements into the great problem, which seem to indicate 
that gravitation is by no means the only force by which 
the motions of the heavenly bodies are influenced, and 
that causes are now in operation which are slowly but sure- 
ly undermining the system. We now find, therefore, such 
high authorities as Whewell, Sir John Iierschel, Sir Wil- 
liam Thomson, Balfour Stewart, Prof. Maxwell, Dr. J. R. 
Mayer, Helmholtz, Tyndall, Littrow, Comte, Adolph Fick, 
asserting that the solar system is not a self-winding clock 
which may run forever, but that it is a dissipative system 
which must ultimately lose all motion, unless some pow- 
er capable of controlling the laws of material nature in- 
terfere to preserve it. We have no more valid reason for 
concluding that the Deity intended the system should be 
eternal than that He intended the earthly life of man should 
be eternal. 1 A few general statements may assist the read- 
er in appreciating the merits of the discussion. 

It has been observed since the dawn of science that 
changes are taking place in the motions of the heavenly 
bodies. The eccentricity of the earth's orbit has been grad- 
ually diminishing from the earliest observations to the pres- 
ent time. The moon, also, has been moving faster and fast- 
er from the time of the first recorded eclipses, and is now 
in advance by about four times her own breadth of what 
her place would have been had she not been affected by 
these accelerations. 2 In a few thousand years she will be 
half a month ahead of the place she would be in if her 
month were to remain constant. The moon is, therefore, 

1 North American Revieiv, Oct., 1861, pp. 372-3. 

2 Mitchell's "Planetary and Stellar Worlds," p. 143. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. H3 

approaching closer and closer to the earth; and if these 
changes go on uninterruptedly, without any reaction or 
adjustment, sooner or later the final catastrophe must 
come, and the moon be precipitated on the body of the 
earth. 

Toward the close of the last century, Laplace, in his 
great work, the " Mechanique Celeste," attempted by cer- 
tain mathematical computations to show that, neverthe- 
less, the solar system is stable and permanent. The plan- 
ets, by their mutual attractions, produce perpetual pertur- 
bations in one another's movements. Laplace believed he 
could prove that these were periodic ; they reach a maxi- 
mum value and then diminish, oscillating between very 
narrow extremes. He therefore taught that the machine 
would go on by a kind of perpetual motion, without any 
winding up or adjustment from without; and, consequent- 
ly, the eternal continuance of the solar system is insured. 

All the investigations of Laplace, and the computations 
of Lagrange, proceeded on two assumptions : first, that the 
planets are moving in vacuo ; and, secondly, that they are 
solid throughout their entire mass. The latter assumption 
is certainly in conflict with well - determined geological 
facts; and there is no a priori ground for assuming that 
the planetary spaces are void and empty. On the con- 
trary, the general analogies of nature would lead us to the 
very opposite conclusion, and all attempts at producing a 
perfect vacuum have hitherto failed. Furthermore, the 
great body of modern physicists, and nearly all modern 
astronomers, hold that the celestial spaces are filled with a 
"material ether," which must by its very nature offer some 
resistance to planetary motion. 

" Scientific men," says Mayer, " do not doubt the exist- 
ence of such an ether." The presence of such " material 

II 



114 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ether — dense, elastic, and capable of motion — subject to and 
determined by mechanical laws," 1 is demanded for the ex- 
planation of radiant heat, light, and actinism. No other 
theory ever proposed has so beautifully and completely ac- 
counted for all the facts. Its reality must be admitted, un- 
til the positions established by Huyghens, Young, Fresnel, 
Foueault, and Fiziau are shown to be untenable. All the 
prominent experimental physicists of the present day agree 
in teaching that light and heat are transmitted by vibra- 
tions or w T ave-like motions in a material medium univer- 
sally diffused through space, and permeating all material 
bodies. Light and heat are the ceaseless thrill which the 
distant orbs collectively create in the ether, and which con- 
stitute what has been called the temperature of space. If 
the existence of such material medium as the assumed 
ether be denied, we can not account in any conceivable 
or rational manner for the transmission of light and heat 
from the sun. And now, if the space between the celestial 
bodies contain no other matter than that necessary for the 
transmission of light, " that alone," says Littrow, " is suf- 
ficient, in the course of time, to alter the motion of the 
planets, and the arrangements of the solar system itself; 
the fall of all the planets and comets into the sun, and the 
destruction of the present state of the solar system, must 
be the final result of this action." 2 

But it is further claimed by Helmholtz, Mayer, and 
Sir William Thomson that the phenomena presented by 
Encke's comet furnish "direct proof" of the existence of 
such resisting medium. The observations on this comet 
made during the past thirty or forty years show that the 

1 Tyndall, "Fragments of Science," p. 135. 

2 Quoted by Mayer, " Celestial Dynamics : Correlation and Conservation 
of Forces, "p. 271. 



CREATION.— THE G EXES IS OR BEGINNING. H5 

periods of its revolution are continually diminishing at the 
rate of 0.11° per revolution of nearly 3^ years. In other 
words, the comet's mean distance from the sun is dimin- 
ishing by slow and regular degrees. The solution which 
Encke himself proposed, and which Herschel informs us 
"is generally received," 1 is that resistance is experienced 
from the medium in which the comet moves ; such re- 
sistance diminishing its actual velocity and also its centrif- 
ugal force, thus giving the sun greater power to draw it 
nearer. It will, therefore, fall into the sun. A similar fate, 
says Helmholtz, threatens all the planets, " The analogies 
of nature, and the ascertained facts of physical science, 
forbid us to doubt that every star, and, indeed, every tody 
of every hind moving in any part of space, has its relative 
motion impeded by the air, gas, vapor, medium, or what- 
ever we call the substance occupying space immediate- 
ly around them, just as the motion of a rifle-bullet is im- 
peded by the resistance of the air." 2 

There are also indirect resistances, the effects of tidal 
friction, on all bodies which, like the earth, have portions 
of their free surfaces covered by liquids, which, so long 
as these bodies move relatively to neighboring bodies, 
must keep drawing off energy from their relative motions. 
"Thus, if we consider the action of the moon on the earth, 
with its oceans, lakes, and rivers, we perceive that it must 
tend to equalize the period of the earth's rotation on its 
axis, and of the revolution of the two bodies about their 
centre of inertia ; because, so long as these periods differ, 
the tidal action of the earth's surface must keep subtract- 
ing energy from their motions." 3 As the tidal wave sweeps 

; " Outlines of Astronomy," p. 308. 

2 Thomson and Tait, " Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 191. 

3 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 191. Balfour 
Stewart, "Treatise on Heat," p. 372. 



116 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

over the oceans and rashes into the numerous bays and est- 
uaries, the motions which it produces in the waters nec- 
essarily involve an expenditure of power or vis viva in 
overcoming the resistance from friction. The energy of 
motion thus expended must be drawn from the set of ma- 
chinery which produces the motions — that is, from the mo- 
tion of revolution of the moon, and the motion of rotation 
of the earth. It can not be returned to the machinery, 
because all that is not spent in triturating the sand and 
other materials composing the ocean - bed, is transformed 
into heat and radiated into space. 

It is true that in the present state of science we have 
not exact data for estimating the relative importance of 
tidal friction, and of the resistance of the interstellar me- 
dium ; but, whatever it may be, there can be, says Thom- 
son, " but one ultimate result for such a system as that of 
sun and planets if continuing long enough under existing 
laws. . . . That result is the falling together into one mass, 
which, although rotating for a time, must in the end come 
to rest relatively to the surrounding medium" x 

Another evidence that the solar system is temporal, and 
that the present cosmical order most come to an end, is 
found in the fact that the sun is radiating heat into space 
in quantities incomparably greater than it receives. If it 
were not so, we should receive, on the average, as much 
heat from every other quarter of the heavens as from the 
sun, and no vicissitudes of temperature would ever occur on 
the earth. Now, from what we know of the nature of heat, 
it is impossible that the supply contained in the sun should 
be inexhaustible. There is no apparent reason why the 
sun should form an exception to the fate of all fires, its 

1 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 194; also Helm- 
holtz, in " Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 242. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. H7 

onlv difference being; one of size and time. It is larger 
and hotter than ordinary lamps, but is nevertheless a lamp 
in which invisible molecular energy is consumed, and con- 
sumed, too, at a rate which baffles all conception. From 
every square foot of its surface the sun gives out energy 
equal in amount to seven thousand horse -power. The 
total amount of heat sent off from the sun in one minute 
is " five thousand millions of millions of units :" a unit of 
heat being the quantity of heat required to raise one kilo- 
gramme — or about one quart — of water one Centigrade 
degree. 1 This enormous consumption of energy must 
finally exhaust the original stock. Were the sun a solid 
block of coal, and were it allowed a sufficient quantity of 
oxygen to enable it to burn at the rate necessary to pro- 
duce the observed emission of heat, it would be utterly 
consumed in five thousand years. Or if we suppose, with 
Thomson, that the initial form of the energy of the uni- 
verse is the potential energy of gravitation in matter dif- 
fused through space, and if this potential energy (energy 
of position) is transformed into heat (molecular kinetic 
energy) by condensation or contraction of the sun, and this 
energy of molecular motion (heat) is again transformed 
into radiant energy and diffused through infinite space, it 
is obvious that this condensation can not be continued for- 
ever, and Thomson has shown in his article on the "Age 
of the Sun's Heat" that its power of radiation must come 
to an end. Various theories have been suggested for re- 
plenishing the solar heat, one of the most plausible of 
which is the falling of meteoric and cometary bodies into 
the sun. Prof. Thomson, who was one of the first to 

1 Winch ell, " Sketches of Creation," p. 422. If the whole solar radiation 
were employed in dissolving a layer of ice inclosing the sun, it would dissolve 
a stratum ten miles and a half thick in one day. 



118 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

adopt this view, has now abandoned it, or at least has de- 
nied its adequacy to account for the maintenance of solar 
heat. Even were the hypothesis accepted as valid, the 
supply of fuel is still finite. Time will drain the entire 
space inclosed by the orbit of the planet Neptune of all 
the meteors and comets. Even the planets must at length 
be ensepulchred in the sun. " As surely," writes Sir Will- 
iam Thomson, " as the weights of the clock run down to 
the lowest position, from which they can never rise again 
unless fresh energy is communicated to them from some 
source not yet exhausted, so surely must every planet creep 
in, age after age, toward the sun." Not one can escape its 
fiery end. And, finally, the heat of the sun itself — that is, 
its molecular energy — must be transformed into radiant 
energy, and diffused and lost as a working force in infinite 
space. " Thus do the inexorable laws of mechanics indi- 
cate that the sun's store of heat, which can only suffer loss 
and not gain, must he finally exhausted." 1 

There are thus special geological and astronomical facts 
which have loug been regarded as indicative of the prin- 
ciple that the existing order of the material universe is 
temporal — it had a beginning, and must have an end. 
But the modern Theory of Energy, 2 with its three great 

1 Helmholtz, "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 245. 

2 Energy is now defined as " the power of doing work" that is, the power, 
in virtue of its position (as ahead of water, a raised mass, a coiled spring) or 
in virtue of its motion (as a falling mass, a current of wind, a projectile), to 
do work. The first is called Potential, the second Kinetic Energy. Besides 
these instances of Visible Energy, there is also Invisible Molecular Energy, 
divided into, (a) the Energy of electricity in motion ; (Ji) the Energy of ra- 
diant heat and light ; (c) the kinetic Energy of absorbed heat ; (d) molecular 
potential Energy; (e) potential Energy caused by electrical separation; (/) 
potential Energy caused by chemical separation. Of these different kinds of 
Energy, the most available for work is Mecbanical Energy, or Energy of vis- 
ible motions and positions : the least available is universal heat, or radiant 
Energy. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. H9 

laws of Conservation, Transformation, and Dissipation, 
must be regarded as a comprehensive, complete, and final 
settlement of the question. It has been shown, first, that 
no system of machinery can create force any more than it 
can create matter ; and that the amount of energy in the 
universe, or in any limited system which does not receive 
energy from without, or part with it to external matter, is 
a constant or invariable quantity. This is the Law of the 
Conservation of Energy. It has been proved, secondly, as 
an experimental fact that, in general, one form of energy 
may, by suitable processes, be transformed wholly or in part 
to an equivalent amount of another form ; and the sole 
and only function of all possible machines is the conver- 
sion or transformation of energy. This is the Law of 
the Transformation of Energy. This law of Transfor- 
mation is, however, subject to the limitations which are 
imposed by the Laio of the Dissipation of Energy r , the 
discovery of which is mainly due to Sir William Thomson. 
He has shown that every machine does its work against 
friction. " A material system can never be brought through 
any returning cycle of motions without spending more 
work against the mutual forces of its parts than it gained 
from these parts, because no relative motions can take 
place without meeting with friction al or other forms of 
resistance." No known process of transformation is ex- 
actly reversible. Whenever an attempt is made to trans- 
form and retransform energy by an imperfect process, 
part of the energy is converted into heat, and the heat is 
dissipated^ so as to become useless because incapable of 
further transformation. It therefore follows that, as en- 
ergy is constantly in a state of transformation, there is a 
constant degradation of energy to that final unavailable 
form of uniformly diffused heat ; and this will go on as 



120 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OE THE WORLD. 

long as transformations occur, until the whole energy of 
the universe has taken this form. 1 The reader will find an 
extended discussion of this great question in Thomson and 
Tait's "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. pp. 188-304, in which 
it is shown that the present material system is not a dy- 
namically conservative but a dissipative system, and there- 
fore that in such a system "perpetual motion" is an im- 
possibility. 

Indeed, the Law of the Dissipation of Energy is an in- 
telligent and well-supported denial of the chimera of per- 
petual motion. There is a loose idea that perpetual mo- 
tion is impossible to us, because we can not avoid friction 
with its consequent loss of energy, but that nature works 
without friction, or that, in general, friction entails no loss, 
and so here perpetual motion is possible; but nature no 
more works without friction than we do, and friction en- 
tails a loss of available power. The supply of invisible 
molecular energy in the sun is no more infinite than the 
quantity of matter in the sun is infinite. The sun is daily 
lifting huge masses of water from the sea to the skies, 
yearly lifting endless vegetation from the earth, setting 
breezes and hurricanes in motion, dragging the huge tidal 
wave round and round the earth ; performing, in short, the 
great bulk of the endless labor of this world and other 
worlds, so that the energy of the sun is continually being 
given away without any corresponding restoration. The 
loss of force in the shape of radiant light and heat can 
never be weaned back to any other mode of available en- 
ergy. Carnot, Clausius, Thomson, and Kankine have all 
from different points of view been led to the same conclu- 
sion. We can make no use whatever of the energy repre- 

1 See article " Energy," in North British Revieiv, May, 1861, and Balfour 
Stewart's "Treatise on Heat," p. 370. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 121 

sented by equally diffused heat. If one body is hotter 
than another, as the boiler of a steam-engine is hotter than 
the condenser, then we can make use of the difference of 
temperature to convert some of the heat into work; but 
if two substances are equally hot, even though their par- 
ticles contain an enormous amount of molecular energy, 
they will not yield us a single unit of work. Energy is 
thus of different qualities, mechanical energy being the 
best, and universal heat the loorstf in fact, this latter de- 
scription of energy may be compared to the waste heap of 
the universe, in which the effete forms of energy are suf- 
fered to accumulate without any further conversion. 1 If, 
then, when mechanical force passes into heat, some of the 
heat can never be brought back to be mechanical force, 
and if the change from mechanical force to heat be ever 
going on, all the force in the universe must at last take 
the form of radiant heat. But if that be so, then at last 
all differences of temperature must disappear, and every 
thing end in a universal death. 

" We are come." says Adolph Fick, " to this alternative : 
either in our highest, most general, most fundamental ab- 
stractions, some great point has been overlooked, or the uni- 
verse will have an end, and must have had a beginning; 
it could not have existed from Eternity, but must at some 
date, not infinitely distant, have arisen from something 
not forming a part of the natural chain of causes — that is, 

IT MTST HAVE BEEN CEEATED." 2 

So far, then, the deductions of science are found to be 
in striking harmony with the teaching of revelation — the 
existing order of the universe had a beginning ; the forms, 

1 Stewart's "Elements of Physics," p. 357. 

2 "Die Naturkrafte in ibrer Wechselbeziehung," p. 89. 



122 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

relations, laws, harmonies of the Cosmos had a commence- 
ment in time. We may now proceed to the considera- 
tion of the second question : Had that which is the ground 
of all form, the subject of all changes and relations, a 
beginning? Had the matter of the universe a begin- 
ning ? 

That we may fairly present the answer which modern 
science offers to this question, we must premise, in general, 
that it confesses its inability, in the present stage of phys- 
ical knowledge, to determine what is the ultimate or in- 
ternal constitution of matter. Many scientists of to-day 
are of the opinion expressed by Grove * that " probably 
man will never know the ultimate structure of matter." 
Others, as, for example, Thomson, Bayma, Mc Vicar, and 
Challis, entertain the opinion that physical science is com- 
petent to discover all the minutiae of molecular actions, 
and when this has been achieved, the question as to the 
ultimate constitution of matter can be finally determined. 
There is one guiding principle, recognized alike by the 
physicist and the metaphysician, namely, that substances, 
ultimate entities, are known, and can only be known in 
and through their respective phenomena. An exact enu- 
meration and careful colligation of all the phenomena are 
therefore indispensable prerequisites to the solution of the 
problem. 

Meantime nothing is more remarkable, even in the 
present state of physical science, than the fact that, under 
the subtile analysis of modern physics, much that we have 
been accustomed to regard as phenomena of matter dis- 
solves and disappears, surviving only as phenomena of 
Force. The phenomena of heat, light, color, sound, elec- 
tricity, and magnetism are now " modes of motion " — 

1 "Correlation of Physical Forces/' p. 187. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 123 

manifestations of one and the same omnipresent energy, 
which is transferred from one portion of matter to an- 
other, and modified or transformed simply by the me- 
chanical arrangements and collocations of matter. The 
opinion is rapidly gaining ground that even chemical ac- 
tion is a mode of motion, and Professor Norton does not 
hesitate in affirming that " all the phenomena of material 
nature result from the action of force upon matter" 1 
All that we mean by a Material Force " is a force which 
acts upon matter, and produces in matter its own appro- 
priate effects." 2 It is not an attribute of matter, not a 
quality inherent in matter, but a mode or state superim- 
posed upon matter. 

There is a large, influential , and daily increasing class 
of scientists, among whom may be named Faraday, Prof. 
Owen, Dr. Lay cock, Wallace, Dr. Winslow, Prof. Huxley, 
who do not regard matter as an ultimate entity, and who 
believe that all the phenomena of matter (so called), even 
extension, resistance, and ultimate incompressibility, may 
be resolved into phenomena of force. In other words, 
matter is only phenomenal^ and, like all phenomena, de- 
mands a cause? These men are perplexed with no diffi- 
culties as to the origin of matter. As a phenomenon it 

1 American Journal of Science, July, 1864. 

2 Argyll, " Reign of Law," p. 121. 

3 Sir Isaac Newton entertained a similar opinion. " We may be able," 
he said, " to form some rude conception of the creation of matter, if we sup- 
pose that God by his power had prevented the entrance of any thing into a 
certain portion of pure space which is of its nature penetrable, . . . from 
henceforward this portion of space Avill be endowed with impenetrability, 
one of the essential qualities of matter ; and as pure space is absolutely uni- 
form, we have only to suppose that God communicated the same impenetra- 
bility to another portion of space, and we should obtain in a certain sort the 

.notion of mobility, another quality which is essential to matter." — M. Coste, 
Note in the 4th Edition of his " French Translation of Locke's Essay." (M. 
Coste reports the above from Newton's lips.) 



124 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

must be a product of Creative Efficiency, and therefore 
had a beginning. 

It is obviously unnecessary that we should here discuss the 
merits of this hypothesis which resolves matter into force. 
We shall encounter it at a subsequent stage of our in- 
quiry, and may then attempt to gauge its merits. It is 
enough for our present purpose that Heat, Light, Color, 
Sound, Electricity, Magnetism, are recognized as forms 
of molecular Energy — phenomena of Force; that these 
forms of invisible molecular energy, together with all the 
energy of visible motions and positions, are regarded as 
flowing from one great central force, or fountain-head of 
power ; and that there is a remarkable unanimity among 
the first scientific men of our age in acknowledging this 
power as the Creative Efficiency of God. These forces 
uniformly work in obedience to Law ; and Law, whether 
viewed in the orderly movement of a planet or an atom, 
in the symmetrical arrangement of a crystal of the defi- 
nite proportions of chemical combination, in the organiza- 
tion of a worm or of an elephant, is intellect, is reason. 
This is the ultimate principle upon which every condition 
of matter and form depends. 

This conception of force will materially aid us in the 
conception of matter. It is simply " the recipient of im- 
pulses or energy" 1 — the mere passive condition for the 
exercise of power. " It does not generate the phenomena 
which it manifests. It is only the substratum — it does ab- 
solutely nothing but give to the phenomena their condi- 
tions of manifestation." 2 Every molecule of matter, every 
aggregation of molecules, every organism must be re- 
garded as a machine upon which the forces of nature 

1 Prof. Maxwell, in Nature, vol. ii. p. 219. 

8 M. Claude Bernard, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 867. 



CREATION.— THE GENESIS OR BEGINNING. 125 

play, and by which they are transformed and rendered 
available for the performance of work. Thus matter, by 
its very conception, must have been created, and fitted for 
the fulfillment of a predetermined function. Before the 
mechanism of the universe was set in motion, there was a 
preparation and collocation of its materials, and an ad- 
justment of its minutest parts. As Sir John Herschel 
justly remarks, " Chemical analysis most certainly points 
to an origin, and effectually destroys the idea of an exter- 
nal self -existent matter, by giving to each of its atoms the 
essential character, at once, of a manufactured article and 
a subordinate agent." 1 The numerical relations between 
chemical elements are the expression of creative ideas. 
The maxim of the Pythagorean philosophers is daily re- 
ceiving new illustration from science, " The world is a 
living arithmetic in its development, a realized geometry 
in its repose." There can be no arithmetic without an 
Arithmetician, no geometry without a Geometrician. 
Thus in the very elements out of which the universe is 
built, the blocks of nature's temple, we see the indications 
not only of a fashioning but of an originating intelli- 
gence — a Creating God. Design as truly appears in the 
primitive nature of matter as in its secondary formations. 
The primitive purpose is stamped on the primitive article. 

"Every molecule throughout the universe bears impress- 
ed on it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does 
the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the double royal cu- 
bit of the Temple of Karnac. 

" Xo theory of evolution can be formed to account for 
the similarity of molecules, for evolution necessarily im- 
plies continuous change, and the molecule is incapable of 
growth or decay, of generation or destruction. 

1 " Dissertation on the Study of Natural Philosoph}-," § 28. 



126 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

" None of the processes of Nature, since the time when 
Nature began, have produced the slightest difference in the 
properties of any molecule. We are therefore unable to 
ascribe either the existence of the molecules or the identi- 
ty of their properties to the operation of any of the causes 
which we call natural. 

" On the other hand, the exact quality of each molecule 
to all others of the same kind gives it the essential charac- 
ter of a manufactured article, and precludes the idea of 
its heing eternal and self -existent" 1 

1 Prof. Clerk Maxwell, F.R.S.," Lecture delivered before the British As- 
sociation at Bradford," in Nature, vol. viii. p. 441. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 127 



CHAPTER V. 

ceeation: its history. 

The universe bad a beginning. It is not eternal either 
in its matter or form ; it is neither self-originated nor self- 
sustained. The all of the finite, with its relations and laws, 
its adaptations and harmonies, had its origin solely and 
absolutely in the unconditioned will of God. This is the 
Christian doctrine concerning the world. 

In the preceding chapters we have endeavored to show 
that this doctrine is in perfect agreement with the teach- 
ings of sound philosophy, and we have found that it is 
daily receiving fresh confirmation from the discoveries of 
modern science. 

If the universe originated solely in the free determina- 
tion of God, then we are assured there must be a sufficient 
and ultimate reason for its existence. This logically fol- 
lows from the true conception of Will, for will is not un- 
conscious force, neither is it groundless arbitrariness, but 
conscious, rational choice. 

In the merely formal and indifferent sense of the word, 
an arbitrary action is one in which the agent yields to the 
blind impulse of caprice, and can assign no reason for his 
doing. An action is truly free only when the agent knows 
what he wills, and why he wills it. The self-conscious will 
is the only real will. Will is intrinsically something more 
than power, something more, even, than the power of spon- 
taneous self-determination. Will involves precognition, 



128 THE TEEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

deliberation, and alternative choice : it is the living syn- 
thesis of reason and power. " The mere moment of self- 
determination does not suffice for the notion of will, for 
this, in a certain sense, we must ascribe to unintelligent 
creatures, to the organic life of nature by virtue of its de- 
velopment from its own principle. Self-determination only 
thereby becomes will by its being a conscious determina- 
tion — that is, the conscious subject is able to present to its 
own mind that which it brings to reality by its self-deter- 
mination." * All real volition supposes a purpose or end to 
be realized, an inward motive or reason which renders the 
end desirable, and the choice and adaptation of means to 
accomplish that end. Consequently, if the universe is the 
product of the Divine Will, it must, both in its origination 
and its history, be the realization of an ultimate or final 
purpose, must have a perfect unity of plan ; and the highest 
law of the universe must be a ideological idea to which all 
nature-forces and all causal connections are subordinated. 
This ultimate purpose forms, as it were, a complete net- 
work of higher teleological connections above the web of 
mere aiteological connections which pervades the universe. 
This great principle that a teleological idea is the high- 
est law of the universe has been recognized by all philos- 
ophers of the spiritualistic school from the time of Plato 
to the present day. Even Mr. Mill admits that " Teleol- 
ogy, or the Doctrine of Ends, may be termed, not improp- 
erly, a principle of the practical reason ;" 2 and he advises 
those who would prove the existence of God " to stick to 
the argument from design." "No saying of Bacon has been 
more often quoted or more grossly misunderstood and mis- 
applied than his remark on final causes : " The search after 

J Miiller, " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. p. 28. 
2 "Logic," vol. ii. p. 527, 4th edition. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 129 

final causes is barren, for like virgins consecrated to God 
they produce nothing." If, however, we refer to his writ- 
ings ("Advancement of Learning," bk.ii. p. 142),we find him 
adding, " not because these final causes are not true and 
worthy to be inquired, being kept within their own prov- 
ince." A fair consideration of the context clearly shows 
that the remark was intended to apply to Physics, and not 
at all to Metaphysics. All that he intends to say is that in 
purely physical inquiries the search after final causes can 
have no practical application ; and the error he would guard 
against is the assumption that what appears to man a final 
cause must be the ultimate final cause to the Infinite One. 
The belief that a principle of adaptation to special ends 
pervades all existence, and that it must be assumed as the 
ground of the scientific explanation of the facts and phe- 
nomena of the universe, is avowed by the first scientists 
of the age. " We can not be content," says Dr. Laycock, 
" with simply determining the mere relations of things or 
events — an existence, a co-existence, a succession, or a re- 
semblance — and not inquire into the ends thereof. Such 
a doctrine applied to physiology would, in fact, arrest all 
scientific research into the phenomena of life ; for the in- 
vestigation of the so-called functions of organs is nothing 
more than a teleological investigation." 1 "A law of design 
is the higher generalization of the great uniformities of 
nature" 2 In his inaugural address at the meeting of the 
British Association of Science at Edinburgh, Sir William 
Thomson said : "I feel profoundly convinced that the argu- 
ment from design has been greatly lost sight of in recent 
speculations. . . . Overwhelmingly strong proofs of Intelli- 
gence and Benevolent Design lie all around us ; and if ever 

1 " Mind and Brain," vol. i. pp. 107-8. 

2 "Mind and Brain," vol. i. p. 261. 



130 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

perplexities, whether of a metaphysical or scientific charac- 
ter, turn us away for a time, they will come back upon us 
with irresistible force, showing us through nature the in- 
fluence of a Free Will, and teaching us that all living be- 
ings depend upon one ever-acting Creator and Ruler" > 

Every enlargement of our knowledge of organic nature 
is an addition to the already numberless instances of recog- 
nized special adaptation which crowd us on every hand ; 
and all scientific discovery is but an illustration and a veri- 
fication of the d priori intuition of the reason that a prin- 
ciple of design is co-extensive with and the highest law of 
the universe. Kot merely of each individual existence, but 
of the grand totality of existence, are we constrained to 
believe that it exists for a purpose. Above all special ends 
there is a great ultimate design of creation — a last or final 
end to which all intermediate ends are means ; and though 
physical science can not fully compass that final purpose, 
yet in the light of its present knowledge of special ends 
it has abundant reason for assuming that there must be a 
final purpose, and that that final purpose is at once benef- 
icent and wise. 2 

But while the final purpose of creation may not be dis- 
coverable by human science, we know that it has been re- 
vealed in the Christian Scriptures. 

The most fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that 
God is Love (1 John iv. 8, 16), and that Love is the highest 
determining principle of the Divine efficiency. Creation, 
Providence, and Redemption are grounded in Love as the 
final cause (Gen. i. 31 ; Isa. lxiii. 9 ; John iii. 16). 

The gravitating point of the Christian doctrine of " God 
the Creator" is not Omnipotence, nor yet Wisdom, but al- 

1 Nature, vol. iv. p. 270. 

- See Murphy, ''Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 121. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 131 

ways Love. Omnipotence, in itself considered, possesses 
no moving or determining principle. God does not create 
the world to reveal his infinite power. Infinite Wisdom 
devises the best means and methods for the Divine effi- 
ciency, but it does not supply the ultimate reason why the 
world exists. The Love of God is the moving principle of 
his wisdom and power in that it appoints the end to which 
omnipotence is related as the efficient, and wisdom as the 
formal cause. Whatever displays of power or of wisdom 
may be made in the created universe, they are all subor- 
dinated and made subservient to the purpose of Love. The 
highest law of the universe is Love. " The conservation 
of Love is the loftiest conservation of Force." 

The world, then, was created to be a revelation of God, 
and especially to be a revelation of the perfections of the 
Divine nature which are grounded in and deducible from 
Love ; and it exists as the self-manifestation and self-com- 
munication of God to personal creatures who can know 
Him and love Him in return. " That which can determine 
God, absolutely sufficient in Himself, in the production of 
beings distinct from Himself, is Love alone; consequently 
the creation is nothing else than the free self-communica- 
tion of God Himself, who could be exclusively in Himself, 
but wills that others may have being and, in fellowship 
with Him, eternal life." l The world-creating, world-pre- 
serving Love of God has this for its ultimate purpose, that 
there shall he beings who, in the completeness and perfec- 
tion of personal existence, shall know and love and resem- 
ble God, and have felloiv ship in his blessedness and joy 
(Matt. v. 8 ; 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; 2 Peter i. 4 ; 1 John iii. 2). 

The realization of a perfected humanity in fellowship 
with God is, then, the final end of creation. We find some 
1 Miiller, ''Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. p. 1-46. 



132 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

intimations of this grand purpose in the sublime record of 
creation which is given by Moses. We there learn that 
every thing was created with a view to man — to " man in 
the image of God." The inorganic world exists for the 
vegetable kingdom, the vegetable exists for the animal 
kingdom, and all exists for man (ch. i. 26-30). All its suc- 
cessive changes were a preparation for the appearance of 
man. 1 The more comprehensive revelation of the New 
Testament teaches that man exists for the realization of 
that perfected humanity of which Christ is the model, and 
which is attained in and through Christianity. The idea 
of man is the teleological principle of the world, the idea 
of Christ is the teleological principle of humanity. All 
things were created by Christ and for Christ. " The good 
pleasure (zvcokio. = the benevolent purpose) of the Divine 
Will " is, in the fullness of time, to gather together in one 
all things both which are in heaven and which are on earth, 
even in Christ, that in the final consummation God may 
be all in all (Eph. i. 9, 10 ; 1 Cor. xv. 28). 

This purpose of Divine Love is an " eternal purpose" or- 
dained before the foundation of the world, and progress- 
ively unfolded in the creation, government, and redemp- 
tion of the world. Thus the world, as an actual, temporal 
world, reposes on an eternal ideal world which has always 
been present to the Divine cognition. The visible crea- 
tion is but the realization of the Divine ideal in such 

1 That man is the final end of the material creation is a principle recog- 
nized by scientific men. "The aim of the Creator in forming the earth, in 
allowing it to undergo the successive changes which geology has pointed out, 
and in creating successively all the different types of animals, was to intro- 
duce man upon the earth. Man is the end toward which all the animal 
creation has tended from the appearance of the Palaeozoic fishes." — Agassiz 
and Gould, "Principles of Zoology," p. 238. See Dr. WinchelTs " Sketch- 
es of Creation," pp. 373, 374 ; Owen's " Anatomy of the Vertebrates,"' vol. 
iii. pp. 796, 808. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 133 

modes and under such conditions as shall constitute it a 
manifestation of God to finite intelligences — the external 
expression of the mind and character of God, the language 
of the Deity. 

Assuming this as a fundamental principle of Christian 
theology that Creation is the self -manifestation of God, 
and that the final cause of this manifestation is the com- 
munication of the Divine blessedness to intelligent, person- 
al being, we may logically infer the following intermediate 
principles as Laics of this Manifestation. 

1. This manifestation must be gradual, not instanta- 
neous. In other words, it must be unfolded in successive 
steps or phases, so as to be adapted to the nature and ca- 
pabilities of the being to whom it is made. The deter- 
minations of nature, like those of consciousness, must 
conform to the law of progressive development. 

Divine omnipotence was, no doubt, adequate to the pro- 
duction of new beings without any pre-existing materials 
or any prearranged conditions ; but creation is not main- 
ly or primarily a revelation of omnipotence. The Deity 
might have brought the phenomena of the universe into 
instant being without any succession and independent of 
all means, but a universe thus instantaneously produced 
and simultaneously presented would reveal no purpose to, 
and could not be understood by, a finite mind. Finite con- 
sciousness can be developed only under conditions of plu- 
rality, difference, and succession, and therefore the objects 
of cognition must be successively presented. We may be 
sensible of the external reality by immediate intuition, but 
we can imderstand only through experience ; and experience 
supposes a gradual process — a succession not simply in our 
mental states, but a succession of external phenomena. 



134: THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

This experience of succession constitutes our consciousness 
of time. Therefore, in order that the Divine manifesta- 
tion may be understood, it must have a history. 1 

2. This manifestation must he cumulative — that is, it 
must afford an increase of knowledge through successive 
additions / it must he an advancing revelation of new 
principles and IojWS in an ascending line of creative acts. 

An evolution which is absolutely continuous, and in 
which the present is the necessary outcome of the past, and 
that by degrees infinitely small, may be a manifestation of 
unconscious force, but can not be a manifestation of living 
Will. If nature be a manifestation of God — the unfold- 
ing of an eternal purpose of Love — this manifestation must 
ever be open to receive new additions, the intercalation of 
new principles, and the superinduction of new laws work- 
ins; for a nobler end. All limitations from the scientific 
stand-point are illogical and absurd. This law would de- 
termine our conception of the universe as an aggregation 
of combined evolutions from several intermediate principles 
or beginnings, rather than an evolution from a single first 
matter or first force. The creation of the new, whether as 
primordial element, or primary force, or principle of life, 
or rational soul, is the fundamental idea of the supernat- 
ural — that is, the production of something which is not a 
necessary outbirth from pre-existing conditions and laws. 2 
Therefore what is commonly, though perhaps incorrectly, 
styled " miraculous interposition," must itself be a law of 
the Divine manifestation, and the law of uniformity must 
be subordinated to the more general law of progressive 
development, which subordinates the inorganic to the or- 
ganic, the physical to the moral world. 

1 Argyll, " Reign of Law," p. 213. 

2 See Muller's " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. p. 237. 



CREATION : ITS HISTORY. 135 

3. This manifestation must be consecutive. JVot only 
must it be a succession of steps or phases, but the entire 
series must be so related and concatenated as to present 
an Order of Thought — an ascending development toward 
a foreseen and predetermined end. 

If it were not so, every thing would be isolated and dis- 
connected, and consequently unintelligible. There would 
be a succession of phenomena, but no manifestation of 
thought ; a series of dissolving views presented to the sense, 
but no revelation to the understanding. Isolated phenom- 
enal changes might be continued through untold ages, but 
the past would have no connection with the present, and 
would be unknown and lost to all the future. A revela- 
tion of the Infinite Mind to finite intelligences, made 
through the manifold and diversified phenomena of nat- 
ure, must be a connected and related whole, so that from 
phenomena actually observed we may infer antecedent 
conditions, and anticipate future evolutions; otherwise it 
could not be understood. To be intelligible, a process of 
development must be the product of thought, and it must 
reveal thought — that is, it must be consecutive. 1 

4. This manifestation must be harmonious. Notwith- 
standing its multiplicity of parts and manifold stages, 
it must be a unity — a Cosmos. 

Beings the most varied in endowment, things the most 
diversified in form and function, events the most remote 
from each other in time and space, must all be related 
and connected in virtue of the ultimate and all-embracing 
purpose for which the universe exists. An external pur- 
pose revealed under time - relations must be an all-har- 
monious evolution and an orderly totality — a Cosmos. 

Let us now turn to the record of creation as given in 

1 Argyll, " Reign of La\v r " p. 219. 



136 THE TIIEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the Sacred Scriptures — the Mosaic Cosmogony — and see 
how that account conforms to the laws which on logical 
grounds we have deduced as the Laws of the Divine 
Manifestation. 

The fundamental prerequisite for a right interpretation 
of the sacred narrative is a clear apprehension, first, of its 
general purpose, and, secondly, of its special literary char- 
acteristics. On these two points, therefore, we offer the 
following preliminary considerations : 

1. The design of the sacred narrative is to teach The- 
ology and not Science. A cursory reading of the narra- 
tive will convince any one that its purpose is not to en- 
large men's views of nature, but to teach them something 
concerning nature's God. It says nothing about the 
forces of nature, the laws of nature, the classifications of 
natural history, or the size, positions, distances, and motions 
of the heavenly bodies. From first to last, every phenom- 
enon and every law is linked immediately to some act or 
command of God. It is God who creates, God who com- 
mands, God who names, God who approves, and God who 
blesses. Strike out the allusions to God, and the narrative 
is meaningless. Clearly, it was never intended to teach 
science. It has obviously one purpose, to reveal and keep 
before the minds of men the grand truth that Jehovah is 
the sole Creator and Lord of the heavens and the earth; 
and it leaves the scientific comprehension of nature to 
the natural powers with which God has endowed man 
for that end. 

All this is what we might legitimately expect. The 
narrative was designed primarily and mainly for the in- 
struction of the masses of men who knew nothing or 
scarcely any thing of science ; and if designed for their 
instruction, it must be couched in language which they 



C RE AT I OX: ITS HISTORY. 137 

could comprehend. A revelation made in the language 
of science would have been unintelligible to the race for 
nearly six thousand years of its history, and, practically, 
would have been no revelation at all. Scientific lan- 
guage, moreover, is subject to modification and change as 
science advances; but the narrative of Genesis was in- 
tended for all time, and therefore needed to be couched 
in language not liable to change. " The only language 
which possesses these two requisites of general intelligibil- 
ity and non-liability to change is the language of appear- 
ances. The facts set forth must be described as they 
would have seemed to the eye of man ; that is, in a word, 
phenomenally, or the cosmogony would fail of its purpose. 
All scrutiny or objection in the matter of unscientific, or 
scientifically inaccurate language, then, must be put aside 
as irrelevant." ' 

While earnestly maintaining that the inspired history of 
creation was given for the instruction of unscientific per- 
sons, and is therefore theological and not scientific, we also 
believe that all truth is one, and that all revelation, wheth- 
er in Scripture or in nature, must be ultimately harmoni- 
ous. Science in its last generalization must be Theology. 
Theology in its proper development must be Science. 
They are twin children of heaven, vestal virgins which 
can not be wedded to error. We are, therefore, justified 
in the expectation that the revelation in Scripture, when 
rightly interpreted, will contain nothing that is inconsist- 
ent with the scientific interpretation of nature. While 
we hold that there are no untimely anticipations of sci- 
entific discovery in Genesis, yet we expect that when the 
scientific discoveries are made, the congruity and dignity 
of the moral and religious lesson shall not be defeated 
1 G. Warrington, "The Week of Creation," p. 27. 



138 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and marred. Nay, more, we maintain that the Mosaic 
cosmogony presents the great principles which really lie 
at the basis of a truly scientific interpretation of nature. 
It teaches that God is before all things and the Creator 
of all things — that He alone is unbeginning, and that all 
things had a beginning in his creative word and will. It 
presents the universe as one harmonious whole, the prod- 
uct of one designing Mind, the project of his thought, the 
transcript of his plan — a plan evolved through successive 
stages toward a foreseen terminus or goal. And, finally, 
it teaches that man is the end toward which creation was 
tending, that he is the last and crowning work of God, and 
that he is the child and charge, not of a blind, impersonal 
force, but of a living, loving God. 

2. The sacred narrative is jpoetic, symbolical, and un- 
chronological. It is a noteworthy fact that the early lit- 
erature of the most ancient nations was poetic — the natu- 
ral, spontaneous product of that earliest stage of mental 
development in which the conceptions of God and of nat- 
ure were determined by subjective feeling and native sen- 
timent, and not by reflective thought. The " Yedas " of 
the Hindus, the " Iliad" of the Greeks, the " Eddas " of the 
ancient Germans, were each the product of an age in which 
"prose was unknown, as well as the distinction between 
prose and poetry." The earliest Hebrew compositions 
are of the same character ; and it is reasonable to assume 
that a primitive revelation to the progenitors of our race 
would be accommodated to this earliest phase in the de- 
velopment of mind. 

The Book of Genesis opens with a Psalm — " the in- 
spired Psalm of Creation " 1 — " a grand symbolical Hymn 
of Creation." " The rhythmical character of the passage, 

1 Rorison, "Creative Week," in Replies to "Essays and Reviews." 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 139 

its stately style, its parallelisms, its refrains, its unity with- 
in itself, all combine to show that it is iLjvoem" 1 Here 
is the same organic unity which marks the 104th Psalm, 
or the Lord's Prayer, or the parable of the laborers in the 
vineyard. Or, if we go out of the Bible for illustration, 
it combines with lyric breadth of treatment and stateli- 
ness of movement all the compactness of a "solemn sonnet 
freighted with a single thought from beginning to end." 
Analysis of its interior structure exhibits a most artificial 
synthesis, founded upon well-known sacred numbers. It 
has, first, an Exordium, the proemial part. Then it is ar- 
ticulated into six Strophes. Finally there is the JEpocle, 
or peroration. The six strophes separate naturally into 
two groups, in which there is a balance and correlation of 
parts celebrating the first three and the last three concord- 
ant steps in the creative movement — the Strophe and the 
Antistrojphe. 

The exordium states briefly the subject of the poem : 
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." 

The first three strophes unfold the creative develop- 
ment of the receptacles : 

1. A. The luminiferous ether. ~\ ( 

2. B. Waters and the firmament between the waters. >■ , f heavens^ 

3. C. Dry land above the waters, with plants. ) and the earth * 

The second three strophes (or, more correctly, anti- 
strophes) unfold the creative development of the occu- 
pants : 

4. A. The light-bearers : sun, moon, and stars. ) . , „ , , 

5. B. Water-animals and birds. I \ ^ nd £ * he hosts N 

6. C. Land-animals and man. ) ° fthem ( Gen - "• D- 

The epode, or peroration, fills up the sacred number 7 

1 Dr. Whedon, in Methodist Quarterly Review, July, 1 8G2, p. 528. 



140 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

— the symbol always of permanence and repose. " Thus 
the heavens and the earth (the receptacles) were finished, 
and all the host of them (the occupants) ; and on the 
seventh day God put period to the work which he created 
by fashioning," etc. 1 

THE SYMBOLICAL HYMN OF CREATION. 

EXORDIUM. 
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

FIRST STROPHE. 

And the earth was formless and empty ; 

And darkness was upon the face of the abyss. 

And the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the vapors. 2 

And God said, Let there be light : 

And there Avas light. 

Refrain — And God saw the light that it was good. 

And God called the light Day : 
And the darkness He called Night. 

And there was evening and there was morning : one day. 

SECOND STROPHE. 

And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, 

And let it be a division of waters from vapors. 

And God made the expanse, 

And divided the waters which were below the expanse from the waters 

which were above the expanse : 3 
And it was so. 
And God called the expanse Heavens. 

And there was evening and there was morning : a second day. 

THIRD STROPHE. 

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, 
And let the dry ground appear : 
And it was so. 

1 See " Creative Week," by Rorison, in Replies to " Essays and Reviews." 

2 "The waters of verse 2 is quite another thing than the water proper of 
the third creative day : it is the fluid (or gaseous) form of the earth itself in 
its first condition." — Lange. 

3 "We must beware of thinking of a mass of elementary water. . . . Here 
is meant the gaseous fluid as it forms a unity with the air." — Lange, p. 168. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 141 

And God called the dry ground Land ; 

And the gathering of the waters He called Seas. 

Refrain — And God saw that it was good. 

And God said, Let the land shoot forth shoots : 

Herbs yielding seed, fruit-trees yielding seed-inclosing fruit after their kind 

upon the land : 
And it was so. 

And the land brought forth shoots ; 
Herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees yielding seed-inclosing fruit 

after their kind. 

Refrain — And God saw that it was good. 

And there was evening and there was morning : a third day. 

FOURTH STROPHE. 

And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to 

divide the day from the night ; 
And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years ; 
And let them be for light-bearers in the expanse of the heavens, to give 

light upon the earth : 
And it was so. 

And God made the two great luminaries ; 
The greater luminary to rule the day ; 
The lesser luminary to rule the night. 
He made the stars lights also ; 
And God appointed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon 

the earth, 
And to rule over the day and night, 
And to divide the light from the darkness. 

Refrain — And God saw that it was good. 

And there was evening and there was morning : a fourth day. 

FIFTH STROPHE. 

And God said, Let the waters swarm forth swarming things, living souls ; l 
And let birds fly upon the land upon the face of the expanse of the heavens. 
And God created great leviathans, 
And all living souls that creep, which the waters swarmed forth after their 

kind ; 
And all birds of wing after their kind. 

Refrain — And God saw that it was good. 

And God blessed them, saying : 

1 r*ri ££2 = soul of life.— Lange. 



142 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea ; 
And let the birds multiply in the land. 

And there was evening and there was morning : a fifth day. 

SIXTH STROPHE. 

And God said, Let the land bring forth living souls after their kind : 

Cattle, and creeping things, and land-animals after their kind : 

And it was so. 

And God made land-animals after their kind, 

And cattle after their kind, 

And all creeping things after their kind. 

Refrain — And God saw that it was good. 
And God said, Let us mnke man in our image, after our likeness; 
And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
And over the birds of the heavens, 
And over the cattle,' 
And over the land, 

And over all the creeping things that creep upon the land. 
And God created man in his own image ; 
In the image of God created He him : 
Male and female created He them. 
And God blessed them ; and God said unto them, 
Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; 
And have dominion over the fishes of the sea, 
And over the birds of the heavens, 
And over all the animals that creep upon the land. 
And God said, Behold, I have given you all herbs seeding seed w r hich are 

upon the face of all the land, 
And every tree which has seed-inclosed fruit : 
They shall be unto you for food. 
And to all land-animals, 
And to all the birds of the heavens, 

And to all creeping things upon the land wherein is a living soul, 
I have given every green herb for food : 
And it was so. 

Refrain — And God saw every thing that He had made, 
and behold it ivas very good. 
And there was evening and there was morning : the sixth day. 

EPODE. 

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. 

And all the hosts of them. 

And on the seventh day God put period to the work which He had made ; 

And He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made. 

And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it : 

Because that in it He rested from all his works which God by making created. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 143 

Who can read this sublime composition without feeling 
that it is " a solemn sonnet freighted with a single thought 
from beginning to end V 9 In our English Bible, broken 
up into verses, and split across into two chapters, it is like 
an image reflected in a shattered mirror ; all its real beauty 
is concealed. But he who can look upon it with a clear 
eve, and grasp its real unity, must recognize it as a Sacred 
Hymn composed probably by Adam, and chanted in the 
tents of the patriarchs at their morning and evening de- 
votions for more than two thousand years, to commemo- 
rate the fact and keep alive the faith that the world is 
the work of the triune God. 

Besides being poetic, the sacred narrative is pre-emi- 
nently symbolical — must be symbolical, because the Di- 
vine reality could never be intuitively known. The facts 
transcend all the possibilities of human experience. What- 
ever knowledge the writer had in regard to the creative 
process must have been obtained in a preternatural way — 
that is, it must have been revealed by Divine Omniscience. 
But such a revelation could not have been communicated 
in mere vocables. Words are themselves but signs — mere 
arbitrary signs of images and ideas — and can convey no 
meaning unless the image or the idea be already before 
the mind. The onty natural hypothesis is that the knowl- 
edge was conveyed in a symbolic representation — a vision 
of the past in a succession of scenic representations with 
accompanying verbal announcements, like the visions of 
the future in the prophecies of Ezekiel and the apocalypse 
of John. The original formless nebula — the primeval 
darkness — the brooding Spirit producing motion — the con- 
sequent luminosity — the separation of the aeriform fluid 
into atmosphere and water — the emergence of the solid 
land— the shooting forth of grass and plants — the appear- 



144: THE TIIEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ance of the heavenly luminaries — the swarming of the 
waters with living things, and the appearance of birds 
of wing in the expanse of heaven — the bringing forth of 
land-animals — and, finally, the creation of man — all pass 
before his mind in a succession of pictorial representa- 
tions of the actual progress of creation. " The sights 
seen, the voices heard, the emotions aroused, are just those 
adapted to bring out the very words the seer actually uses, 
and in both cases the very best words that could have 
been used for such a purpose. The description being 
given from the barely optical rather than from any re- 
flective scientific stand-point more or less advanced, is on 
this xery account the more vivid as well as the more uni- 
versal. It is a language read and understood by all." 
The words of the inspired writer are descriptive of the 
" vision pictures," and these were symbolic representations 
of the Divine realities. 

The language of the sacred record must therefore be 
regarded as anthropqpathic — the Divine idea being sym- 
bolized under the figure of human acts and affections ; and 
from the analogy between the human and the Divine we 
may conceive not what God is in Himself, nor yet the man- 
ner of the Divine action, but the relation of God to the 
world. We must, however, guard against substituting the 
human symbol for the Divine reality, and making the hu- 
man analogy a measure for the infinite Being. " The Sa- 
cred Hymn is no more a literal detail of the actual proc- 
ess of creation than the description of the New Jerusa- 
lem in Revelation is a literal picture of the heavenly 
state." 1 God is forever above all finite relations. Finite 
acts and relations may be employed as representative sym- 
bols of the Divine, but they can never be adequate repre- 

1 Whedon. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 14-5 

sentations. Divine creating and moving, commanding and 
naming, seeing and approving, working and resting, must 
not be narrowed down to the standard of our finite per- 
sonality, and conceived under human limitations. The 
conception of the Deity as standing outside of matter, and 
moving and fashioning it after the manner of a human 
artificer, as commanding and naming in human language, 
as being conditioned in his action by the time -measures 
which He himself appointed, as expending energy and 
then resting after the manner of a human laborer, is the 
rudest anthropomorphism. God is eternal ; neither his 
being nor his action are conditioned by finite measures of 
time. God is absolute immensity, essential omnipresence. 
He is "in all and through all" as truly as He is "above 
and before all." He is a Living Power immanent in all 
matter, as well as transcending all matter, moving it, or- 
ganizing it, vitalizing it continually — a Living Power work- 
ing from within, rather than a mechanical force acting 
from without. 

If the primitive composition standing at the commence- 
ment of Genesis be " the Symbolical Hymn of Creation," 
we are not permitted to regard it as chronological — that 
is, we are not justified in expecting that it shall conform 
to time-measures which had no existence prior to the cre- 
ative act, but which were consequent upon and deter- 
mined by the creative act. This is obvious both from the 
nature of things and the character of the composition. ' 

The 106th Psalm is an epic poem;— that is, it is a narrative 
in poetic measure, a history in metrical form. Who will 
be so unreasonable as to demand that this Psalm shall 
furnish any chronological data, or conform to any time- 
measures whatever ? Psalms are composed to be sung and 
excite emotion, not to be merely read and criticised. The 

K 



146 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

poet groups his materials for the best moral effect, and ar- 
ranges his numbers to secure rhythm and harmony. It 
is simply absurd to demand that there shall be any chro- 
nology — nay, it spoils the grand effect to think of chro- 
nology in reading the " Symbolical Hymn of Creation." 
In fact, we are forbidden to think of time at all by the 
first word of the exordium, which states the subject of 
the poem. The Hebrew bereshith, the Greek lv apyr\=m 
Beginning (not in the Beginning, for the article is not 
used), has no relation to succession in time. It denotes 
pretemjporality, and is rendered by Meyer, Keil, and 
others — "before time or in eternity." It is the same 
thought which is presented in John i. 1 : " In the begin- 
ning was the Word ;" and Tholuck and Dean Alford both 
read the text, "Before the world was, or before time 
was? Indeed, the whole poem represents an ideal con- 
ception, and not a time -march of phenomena. So as- 
sured are we on this point that we confidently affirm that 
no one who endeavors to think of the creation in its re- 
lation to God can ever fall into the anthropomorphic er- 
ror of saying that " God's ways are like unto our ways," 
" God's speaking is like unto our speaking," " God's work- 
ing and resting are like unto our working and resting," 
and " God's days are like unto our days of twenty-four 
hours." As Dr. Whedon remarks, " Our traditional un- 
scientific scientific constructions of this chapter are Ja- 
phetic interpretations of a Semitic text." 

The men who persist in regarding "the day of God" 
as a natural day of twenty-four hours are involved in num- 
berless inconsistencies when they attempt to carry their 
rigid preconception throughout the whole Bible. Hu- 
man or finite measures of time, when applied to any 
thing God does, can only be accommodated representa- 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 147 

tions to meet our feeble comprehension, and we are con- 
stantly guarded, in the Bible itself, against a literal and 
anthropomorphic conception. " Hast thou eyes of flesh, or 
seest thou as man seeth? Are thy days as man's days?" 
(Job x. 4, 5.) To say that God's days of working are like 
our days is just as absurd and as degrading a conception 
as to say that God's eyes are " eyes of flesh," like ours. 
Our time-measures can not condition the Divine action. 
" One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day " (2 Peter iii. 8) ; which means 
that time is as nothing with God, that time does not con- 
dition the Divine life or the Divine action, but that it is' 
the Divine action which makes and conditions all time. 
The beginning of the world is the beginning of time, and 
time is the duration of the world measured into equal parts 
by the equable motion of bodies in space. 1 The attempt 
to measure the creating work of God by days of twenty- 
four hours is just as absurd as the attempt to measure im- 
mensity by a three-foot rule, or to estimate omnipotence 
by horse-power. 

Let any one test the twenty-four-hour measure on such 
texts as the following: "Your father Abraham desired to 
see my day." " The day of the Son of Man." " I must 
work the works of him that sent me while it is day" " If 
thou hadst known in this thy day." " He shall rise again 
in the resurrection at the last day." " The day of salva- 
tion." " The day of judgment." " The terrible day of the 
Lord." It would be a wholesome and profitable exercise to 
take up the Concordance and refer to all the texts in which 
the word " day " stands in any relation to the determina- 

1 Hence alwv, time, or the all of time, is used to express the all of the 
finite, the universe. See Heb. i. 2, xi. 3, where aiwveg is equivalent to uni- 
verse. 



148 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

tions or doings of God, and it will be found that it is al- 
ways an indefinite period of longer or shorter duration, 
and may be twenty-four hundred years, or twenty-four 
thousand years, just as well as twenty-four hours. 

The Hebrew en (yom), first occurring in Gen. i. 5, is 
the name of an indefinite period, a cycle of time radically 
grounded on the primitive conception of division or sep- 
aration. Light is the first separation. It is "divided 
from the darkness." "And God called the light day, and 
the darkness He called night." This is God's. own nam- 
ing, and we must take it as our guide in the interpretation 
of the subsequent " days." Obviously, it is not the dura- 
tion, but the phenomenon, the appearing itself which is for 
the first time called day. Then the term is used for a 
period, or the whole first cycle of events, with its two great 
antithetical parts — "And there w T as an evening, and there 
was a morning, one day." We look into the sacred narra- 
tive to see what corresponds to this naming. What was the 
night % Certainly the darkness on the face of the waters. 
What was the day ? Certainly the light consequent on the 
brooding of the Spirit and the commanding word. How 
long was the day ? How long was the night or the dark- 
ness ? The account tells us nothing about it. There is some- 
thing on the face of it which seems to forbid such questions. 
Where are we to get twelve hours for this first night ? 
Where is the point of commencement when darkness be- 
gan to be on the face of the deep ? All is vast, sublime, 
immeasurable. The time is as formless as the material. 
It has, indeed, a chronology of some kind, but on a scale 
vastly different from that afterward appointed (ver. 14) to 
regulate the history of a completed and habitable world. 
Whoever thinks seriously on the impossibility of accommo- 
dating this first day to the measure of twenty-four hours 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 149 

needs no other argument. The first day is, in this respect, 
the model of all the rest. 1 

It is equally impossible to reduce the " seventh day" to 
a chronological standard of twenty-four hours. " And God 
rested on the seventh day from all his works which He had 
made." Are we to presume that God " rested" as we rest, 
because He was weary, and that He needed to rest just 
twenty-four hours ? Is not God " resting" still in the sense 
in which the word "rest" is here used, viz., to cease doing 
a particular work? Is not all time since the Creation 
God's grand Sabbath, in which he is not doing works of 
Origination, but works of Love and Mercy to our race? 

It is obvious that the first and the seventh days can not 
be days of twenty-four hours ; and, furthermore, a clear ap- 
prehension of the nature of the first day must open to us 
the true conception of all the rest. The days are new ap- 
jiearances, new manifestations, new developments in the 
Creative Week — the great day of God (Gen. ii. 4). Ac- 
cording to the analogy of the first day, the evening is the 
time of a peculiar or partially chaotic condition, like the 
glacial epoch which closed the Cenozoic and opened the 
Phrenozoic day. The morning is a new evolution of a 
new order of things, which carries the world-formation to 
a higher stage. With each creative morning there comes 
a higher, fairer, richer state of the earth, until it reaches 
the Sabbath of the world, the day on which God rested 
or ceased from his world - creating work, that He might 
educate and recreate and redeem and glorify the human 
race. 

In these antithetical movements of each creative day we 
are not necessitated to assume a sudden catastrophe, or any 
return to the chaos of the first day, any more than we now 

1 See Special Introduction by Prof. T. Lewis, in Lange's " Commentary." 



150 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

conceive of night as a sudden return to darkness, or of day 
as the sudden return of light. There is a steady progres- 
sion, an orderly movement in the history of each creative 
day, just as there is in the history of a single solar day. 
The light does not break suddenly upon the world — the sun 
rises gradually upon the earth. And so the creative day 
was a slow development, a gradual evolution out of a prior 
order of things, by the direct efficiency of God. 

It has been insinuated that this is an interpretation which, 
has been forced upon us by the progress of modern science. 
Theology, it is said, has been perpetually driven from her 
positions by science, and is now compelled to take refuge 
in subterfuge and equivocation. The insinuation is as 
false as it is foul. This mode of interpretation w T as pro- 
pounded ages before the science of Geology was known, 
and was taught by Jewish doctors and Christian fathers 
for fifteen hundred years. St. Augustine, the father of 
Systematic Theology, who was born A.D. 354, asks the 
question, " What mean these days — these strange sunless 
days? Does the enumeration of days and nights avail 
for a distinction between the nature that is not yet formed, 
and those which are made, so that they shall be called 
morning propter speciem [i.e., in reference to appearing, 
receiving form or species], and evening propter privatio- 
nem [i.e.] in reference to non-appearance, formlessness, and 
w T ant of sensible quality] ?" (" De Genesi ad Literam," lib. 
ii. ch. 14.) Hence he does not hesitate to call them naturce, 
natures, births or growths ; also morce, delays, or solemn 
pauses in the Divine work. They are dies ineffdbiles ; 
their true nature can not be told. Hence they are called 
days as the best symbol by which the idea could be ex- 
pressed. They are God-divided days and nights in dis- 
tinction from sun-divided. Common solar days are mere 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 151 

vicissitudines codi, mere changes in the positions of the 
heavenly bodies, and not sjiatia morarum, or evolutions in 
nature belonging to a higher chronology, and marking 
their epochs by a law of inward change instead of inci- 
dental outward measurement. As to how long or how 
short they were he gives no opinion, but contents himself 
with maintaining that day is not a name of duration, the 
evenings and the mornings are to be regarded not so much 
as measuring the passing of time {temporis jprceteritionem) 
as marking the boundaries of a periodic work or evolution. 
This is not the metaphorical, but the real and proper sense 
of the word day, in fact the original sense, inasmuch as it 
contains the idea of rounded periodicity or self-completed 
time, without any of the mere accidents that belong to the 
outwardly measured solar or planetary epochs, be they 
longer or shorter. 1 

These are not the mere fancies of St. Augustine. This 
was the doctrine of the ablest Christian fathers — of Irenseus, 
Origen, Basil, and Gregory of Nazianzen. Nay more, it 
was the doctrine of many of the doctors of the old Jewish 
Church. In more recent times we find Calmet, Burnet, 
Stillingneet, Henry More, Lord Bacon, Poole, and others, 
presenting similar views ; and this long before Geology 
existed as a science, and irrespective of any supposed col- 
lision with physical induction. Their opinions and inter- 
pretations were therefore no shift for the avoidance of 
difficulties, but conclusions reached independently on sound 
principles of Biblical exegesis. 

Disregarding the chronology of Archbishop Usher print- 
ed in the margin of our Bible, and the division into chap- 
ters and verses made by Hugh de St. Cher — both mod- 
ern inventions which are no part of the sacred record — 

1 Lange's ; ' Commentary" on Genesis, Introduction, p. 131. 



152 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and purging our minds of those prepossessions which are 
incident to an uncritical faith, we can now contemplate 
the Symbolical Hymn of Creation in its simple and origi- 
nal form, as a record of the self - manifestation of God, 
giyen in such order and under such conditions that it shall 
be apprehensible and interpretable by the finite mind. 

1. Creation was a gradual process. God did not create 
a perfect universe at once, but built it up slowly, step by 
step. A consistent interpretation of the record forbids us 
to regard " the Creative Week " as a literal week composed 
of days of twenty-four hours each. Creation is the work 
of God, and surely the Divine action can not have been 
conditioned by time-measures which did not exist before, 
but were consequent upon the act of God. The great cyc- 
lical changes in nature produced by the creative Word are 
the only measures of time. Therefore the "days" of the 
Creative Week are new appearances, new manifestations, 
new developments in the creative purpose of God. 

The first morning is the appearance of luminosity in 
the aeriform fluid, or nebulous vapor, whatever science 
may finally determine that to have been. The Hebrew 
a?? (mayim), from the root d% which denotes tumultuous, 
tremulous, or undulatory movement, is used of the wa- 
ters of the ocean, of the waters above the firmament, of 
vapor and clouds, because of their susceptibility of trem- 
ulous, undulatory motion. The first distinct creative for- 
mation was heat, or invisible molecular motion, resulting 
from " the Spirit of God brooding upon the face of the 
abyss ;" and this heat reveals itself in the phenomena of 
light. 1 How closely the ideas of light and heat were 

1 "In a conversation held some years ago by the author (Sir J. Herschel) 
with his lamented friend, Dr. Hawtrey, Head-Master and late Provost of 
Eton College, on the subject of Etymology, I happened to remark that the 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 153 

united in the Hebrew mind is shown by the same word 
being used for both, with merely a slight difference in 
pronunciation, ^ia (or) and *fls (ur). 

The second morning is the appearance of an expanse 
in the midst of the vapors, dividing the vapors which were 
below the expanse from the vapors which were above the 
expanse. The Hebrew S^p'i (rakai), from sp 1 ? (to stretch, 
to spread out), means properly an extension, an expanse. 
This is the translation adopted by Benisch, Kalisch, De- 
litzsch, Keil, and Lange. After heat and light, the next 
creative formation is an atmosphere, with its auroral light 
and a cloudy canopy. 

The third morning is the appearance of land and seas, 
and the sprouting forth of vegetation, at first in its lowest 
forms — perhaps as marine plants. The Hebrew y*}X 
(eretz) has two significations, " earth " and " land." When- 
ever it is used in a restricted sense, and especially wher- 
ever it is contrasted with "water," the most appropriate 
rendering is "land." The third creative formation is 
gross, ponderable matter, whether aggregated by molec- 
ular attraction, or compounded by elective affinity, or se- 
lected and organized by vital force. 

The fourth morning is the appearance of luminaries or 
light-bearers in the expanse of heaven, which are now 
" set," or, more correctly, " appointed to give light upon 

syllable Ur or Or must have some very remote origin, having found its way 
into many languages, conveying the idea of something absolute, solemn, def- 
inite, fundamental, or of unknown antiquity, as in the German Ur-alt (pri- 
meval), Ur-satz (a fundamental proposition), Ur-theil (a solemn judgment) — 
in the Latin Oriri (to arise), Origo (the origin), Aurora (the dawn) — in the 
Greek "Opog (a boundary, the extreme limit of our vision, whence our hori- 
zon), "Op/cog (an oath or solemn obligation, etc.). ' You are right, ' was his re- 
ply, ' it is the oldest word of all words : the first word ever recorded to have 
been pronounced. It is the Hebrew for Light 1 " ("litt, aor). — "Familiar 
Lectures on Scientific Subjects," p. 219. 



154 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the earth," and to be time-measures in the future world- 
history. The Hebrew word employed in ver. 14 (nisa), 
which is unfortunately rendered " lights " in the Author- 
ized Version, is a different word from the "light" ("ria) of 
vers. 3-5. rh»a (meoroth) strictly means " light-bearers," 
or bodies giving light. This distinction is carefully ob- 
served in the LXX.,DeWette, Benisch, Kalisch, Tuch, Kno- 
bel, Delitzsch, and Keil. 1 The fourth creative formation 
was the establishment of such cosmical conditions or rela- 
tions as should enable the heavenly bodies to fulfill their 
light-giving function to the earth. What those conditions 
were we may not be able to say. The dense clouds and 
ceaseless showers of the " Age of Rain," which had shut 
out the light of the heavenly bodies for a geological age, 
had now passed away, the atmosphere becomes fitted for 
the transmission of light, and the sun, moon, and stars are 
visible from the earth. The conditions for a rapid devel- 
opment of vegetable life now exist, and this is regarded 
as pre-eminently " the Age of Plant-growth." 

The fifth morning is the appearance of animal life — 
life moving in the waters and soaring in the air, marine 
animals, aquatic reptiles, and birds. 

The sixth morning is the appearance of a higher order 
of animal life, mammals , chiefly designed for the use of a 
still higher being — for Man, whose appearance is the noon- 
tide splendor of the sixth day. 

The seventh morning is the commencement of the Sab- 
lath of God, which is devoted to the moral and religious 
instruction of humanity — the ISTew Creation of the moral 
world. 

The following scheme, furnished by Dr. Winch ell, pre- 
sents at one view the order of the Mosaic record, and at 

1 See " Week of Creation," by Geo. Warrington, p. 13. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 



155 



the same time sets forth the harmony between the Mosaic 
and Geologic records : l 





Genesis, ch. i. 


Brief announcement of chief events in the history: 




Vers. 1,2. 

EXORDIUM. 


I. Gcd the Creator of the Substance and Form 

of the Universe. 
II. Terrestrial Chaos. 

III. Darkness on the face of the Deep. 

IV. Vivification of the Waters. 


DAYS. 




GEOLOGY. 


GF.OLOG1CA1, AGKS. 




I. 


Vers. 3-5. 
Creation of Light. 


Igneous Vapor 
condensing. 


Age of 
Fire. 


> 
>• Abiotic. 


> 

o 
p 


II. 


Vers. 6-8. 
Creation of Firma- 
ment or Expanse. 


Gathering of 

Clouds. Descent 

ofRain. Earliest 

Sediments. 


Age of 
Rain. 


III. 


Vers. 9-13. 

Creation of Dry 

Land and of 

Plants. 


Uplift of Conti- 
nents. Appear- 
ance of Marine 
Vegetation. 


Age of 

Land and 

Plant-making. 


> 
v Proto- 

^PHYTIC. 

1 


IV. 


Vers. 14-18. 
Creation (or ap- 
pointment) of 
Luminaries: sun, 
moon, and stars. 


Dispersion of 
Clouds. Appear- 
ance of Sun, 
Moon, and 

Stars. 


Age of 
Plant- 
growth. 


V. 


Vers. 20-23. 
Creation of Aquat- 
ic Animals and 
Birds. 


Appearance of 
Marine Animals 
(mollusks, fishes, 


Age of 
Mollusks, 
Fishes, 


Palaeozoic. 


etc.), and Aquat- 
ic Reptiles and 
Birds. 


Reptiles, 
Birds. 


Mesozoic. 


VI. 


Vers. 24-31. 
Creation of Land- 
Animals and Man. 


Appearance of 

Mammals and 

Man. 


Age of 
Mammals. 


CiENOZOIC. 


VII. 


Gen. ii. 2,3. 
Sabbath of God. 


Reign of Man. 

The Sabbath of 

Creation. 


Age of 
Man. 


Phrenozoic. 



1 The critical reader will discover a slight difference of opinion between 
Dr. Winchell and myself in regard to how much of chapter i. is to be re- 
garded as the "Exordium" of the Hymn of Creation. Dr. Winchell in- 
cludes verses 1 and 2 ; I incline, however, to the opinion that it is embraced 
in verse 1. The reasons which weigh with me are the following: 1. The 
chaos or the darkness of verse 2 is clearly recognized as " the evening" of the 



156 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

2. Creation was cumulative — that is, it was a succes- 
sion of beginnings or creative epochs, in which new enti- 
ties or new forces were inserted into the already exist- 
ing sphere of nature, carrying it forward toward a nobler 
end. 

This, we think, is the natural impression which the read- 
ing of Gen. i. makes on the unbiased mind. Each cre- 
ative word appears as the dynamical basis of a resiljprin- 
cipium — a beginning of something intrinsically new, and 
which can not be conceived as the physical result of any 
pre-existing condition of things. 1 A new entity or a new 
force was, as it were, inserted in the order of nature ; a 
new impulse was given to matter, or a new direction to 
existing forces, and from that initial point a new series of 
developments, which go on in accordance with law — a new 
succession of births and growths — flows on as a part of 
the grand totality of effects we call "nature." This is, 
obviously, the Biblical conception. Here creation does 

first day, " And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night; 
and there was evening and morning : one day." I do not see how on a fair 
interpretation of the sacred poem we can escape the conclusion that the Jirst 
day embraces "the evening and morning" — that is, the primal darkness of 
verse 2, and the creation of dawning light. This conception furthermore har- 
monizes with the Hebrew usage, which always regarded the preceding night 
as part of the one natural day. The Hebrew Sabbath commenced at six 
o'clock on Friday evening. Thus we read in Leviticus xxiii. 32, "From 
even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." Hence also the evening — 
morning = day (vvxOri-fxepov) — of Daniel viii. 14. 2. The division I have 
made is the one which has been followed by the best Hebrew scholars, whose 
opinion is entitled to the highest deference in this connection. The inde- 
pendent character of the opening sentence of Genesis was affirmed by such 
judicious and learned men as Calvin, Bishop Patrick, and Dr. D. Jennings. 
The early fathers of the Church, as St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Justin Mar- 
tyr, Origen, St. Augustine, and others, held that there was a considerable in- 
terval between the creation related in the first verse, and that of which an 
account is given in the third and following verses. See " The Pre- Adamite 
Earth," by Dr. Harris, p. 281. 

1 Breman Lectures, M. Fuchs "On Miracles," p. 105. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 157 

not present itself as a necessary evolution from a first 
matter or a first force in unbroken continuity, and with- 
out any supernatural interposition. Here are clearly de- 
fined creative epochs, new beginnings, which have their 
origin in the creative will and word of God. What these 
beginnings were is a question of the deepest interest. 

A careful study of Gen. i. and ii. has led us to the 
conclusion that there is something fundamental and rad- 
ical in the distinction between the creative words with 
bara (sis) and those with yetsar (is?) and aysah (»ik??). 
It is, in reality, the distinction between Origination de 
novo and Formation out of pre-existing materials. There 
are three instances in which bara occurs in Gen. i. We 
are fully convinced that in each case it denotes the origi- 
nation of a new entity — a real addition to the sum of ex- 
istence. 

Fikst Origination (Gen. i. 1) : " In the beginning God 
created [pn = the substance or essence of] the heavens 
and the earth." This is the reading of Parkhurst's He- 
brew Grammar (1813), which has since that time been ap- 
proved by able lexicographers and commentators. Some 
of these authorities have been already presented to the 
reader. 1 But even aside from philological considera- 
tions, the context forbids us to regard bara here as de- 
noting "formation," for the product of that creative act 
was "form-less and matter-less /" 2 that is, it was homo- 
geneous, non-differentiated, structureless, and destitute of 
all sensible quality — an abyss of darkness and death, ex- 
hibiting that sole condition of matter, " perhaps its only 
true indication, namely, inertia." 3 The first created ele- 
ment was the single omnipresent fluid Ether, out of which 
all gross matter was built by the action of force. As we 

1 See ante, p. 61. 2 Lange, in loco. 3 Faraday. 



158 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

advance in this discussion we shall find that this is an 
opinion which is entertained by the first physi cists of the 
age, as, for example, Thomson, Tait, Maxwell, Challis, in 
England, and Norton and Hinrich in America. 

Second Origination (Gen. i. 21) : " And God created 
the great monsters, and every living soid [p^ titt=soul 
of life] that moveth" 

The first created animals are here most carefully de- 
noted as " living souls," evidently to distinguish the life 
now first manifested in nature from the molecular, "bio- 
plasmic" life which organizes the vegetable cell, and 
builds up the tissues of the animal body. The life here 
indicated has an individuality which separates it from 
the universal life of nature. There is now an immaterial 
entity — a soul, which is an individualized and indivisible 
centre of force, a soul which has sensation, feeling, per- 
ception, and memory, none of which are properties of 
matter or products of organization. The animal soul is 
not material, neither is it a function or phenomenon of 
organized matter; it is a creation, and therefore bara is 
here significantly employed to denote the origination of 
something new ; a new power or principle is here inserted 
into the sphere of existing nature. 

The second created entity is animal life — Soul — so- 
matic life as distinct and distinguishable from vegetable, 
molecular, bioplasmic life. 

Third Origination (Gen. i. 27) : " And God created man 
in his oivn image, in the image of God created He him." 

The entire paragraph (vers. 26-29) is obviously the rec- 
ord of a supernatural origination. There is a significance 
even in the change of the creative word. In regard to 
prior and inferior existences the language is, " Let the 
earth bring forth!" "Let the waters bring forth!" as 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 159 

though there were some parturient power in nature, or as 
though nature co-operated with and furnished the condi- 
tions and means of the Divine efficiency. But when man 
is to be created the language is, " Let rs make man ;" thus 
placing the origin of man outside the chain of physical 
causation, and ascribing it to the immediate agency of 
God. Besides, the creation here spoken of is the produc- 
tion of a spiritual, not a material entity. " God created 
man in his own image" This creation can not be a for- 
mation out of a pre-existent matter, for no form of matter 
can possibly bear any resemblance to God (Acts xvii. 29). 
"God is sjnrit" and man can be like God only in so far 
as he is endowed with a spiritual nature. Spirit alone can 
bear the image of God. Whatever may be the teaching 
of Genesis as to the origin of the human body, be it a for- 
mation or a development, there is no uncertainty in its lan- 
guage as to the origin of the human spirit. It is an in- 
breathing from God. It proceeded directly from Him. 
By no mere figure of speech, but by a Divine reality God 
is " the Father of spirits," and man is the offspring and the 
image of God. This likeness of God lifts man out of the 
sphere of mere nature — it sets him apart in the essential 
characteristics and endowments of his being as above 
nature, and in some sense divine. 

The third created entity is Spirit ; spirit with its rea- 
son, its liberty, its conscience, its susceptibility of Divine 
inspiration, its capacity for endless progression in knowl- 
edge and love. 

Here, then, are three entities, matter, life, and mind 
(=body, soul, and spirit), which had their beginning in an 
act of absolute creation, and are therefore to be regarded 
as primordial things. 1 Their existence is the necessary 

1 "Three direct acts of the Deity may be recognized, viz., the creation of 



160 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

condition of all subsequent formative and developing pro- 
duction, inasmuch as all formation supposes a something 
to be formed, and all evolution a something involved. 
These primordial entities are the substratum, or ground, of 
all the mediate architectonic creation which is effected by 
the moving and informing presence and agency of the 
Spirit of God. 

This leads us to the consideration of those creative words 
which are formative, and which always pre-suppose the ex- 
istence of real entities as the condition of their efficiency ; 
as, for example, " Let there be light ;" " Let there be an ex- 
panse in the midst of the waters ;" " Let the dry land ap- 
pear ;" " Let there be luminaries in the expanse of heaven." 
All the dividings, the gatherings, the organizings, the or- 
dainings, and collocations suppose the prior existence of 
matter. 

We have seen that the first act of absolute creation — 
the beginning of all beginnings — was the origination of 
that mysterious entity which is the recipient of impulse, or 
energy, and the physical substratum of all sensible phenom- 
ena. From this initial point, the first formative act was 
"the moving or brooding of the Spirit of God upon the 
face of the abyss." All the qualities which matter pre- 
sents to the senses, all physical phenomena, are the result 
of this action of the Deity upon matter — that is, they are 
all manifestations of force} " By various motions of the 
nature of eddies (vortices) the qualities of cohesion, elas- 
ticity, hardness, weight, mass, or other universal properties 
of matter, are given to small portions of the fluid [ether] 

matter, of life, and of mind." — Prof. Hinrich, American Journal of Science 
and Arts, vol. xxxix. p. 57. 

1 See M. Claude Bernard, Revue des Deux Mondes, December 15, 1867: 
Prof. Norton, American Journal of Science, July, 18G4 ; Cooke, "Religion 
and Chemistry," p. 330. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. \§\ 

which constitute the chemical atoms, and these by modi- 
fications in their combination, form, and movement pro- 
duce all the accidental phenomena of gross matter; and 
the primary fluid by other motions transmits light, radiant 
heat, magnetism, and gravitation." x 

The first distinct creative formation was molecular and 
radiant energy. "And God said, Let there be light." 
By this "light" we are not to understand light in its tech- 
nical sense as distinguished from heat, but rather as in- 
cluding heat, such light, in fact, as we meet with in nature 
in the light of the sun, the same Hebrew word (nis) be- 
ing used for both. 

The second distinct creative formation was that wonder- 
ful mechanical combination of chemical elements we call 
the atmosphere. " And God said, Let there be an ex- 
pause in the midst of the vapors, and let it be a division of 
vapors from vapors." The Creator has endowed the oxy- 
gen and nitrogen of the atmosphere with the power of re- 
taining the aeriform condition under all circumstances, 
while the aqueous vapor is liable to very great fluctuation. 
Were there no air surrounding the globe, the quantity of 
vapor would adjust itself almost instantaneously to any 
variation of temperature, and the maximum amount pos- 
sible would always be present at any given place; there 
could then be no clouds and no genial showers of diffusive 
rain. "An elevation of temperature would be attended 
by rapid evaporation, and the amount of water required to 

1 North British Review, March, 1 868, p. 127. This is the doctrine of the 
first physicists of the age, of Sir William Thomson (see Nature, vol. i. p. 
56 1 ; vol. ii. p. 42 L ; and especially vol. iv. pp. 265-6), of Prof. Maxwell (see 
Nature, vol. ii. p. 421), of Prof. Tait (see Nature, vol. iv. p. 271), also of 
Clausius and Kankine. See also Prof. Hinrich, " On Planetology, " in Ameri- 
can Journal of Science, vol. xxxix. p. 283 ; and Prof. Norton, "On Molecu- 
lar and Cosmical Physics," American Journal of Science, vol. xlix. pp. 24, 33. 



162 THE THET8TIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

fill the space would suddenly flash into, vapor ; while, on 
the other hand, a corresponding depression of temperature 
would be accompanied by an equally sudden precipitation 
of the aqueous vapor, not in genial showers, but terrific tor- 
rents. . . . The drops, falling without resistance, woidd be 
as destructive in their effects as volleys of leaden shot." 1 
The presence of a dense medium, such as the atmosphere, 
retards these sudden changes, and determines the forma- 
tion of clouds. Thus " the expanse" is admirably adapted 
to the creative purposes of "dividing the waters from the 
waters." 

The third creative formation was the chemical com- 
pounds and their molar aggregation in land and seas. 
" And God said, Let the waters below the expanse be gath- 
ered together unto one place, and let the dry ground ap- 
pear." The chemical reactions, crystallizations, precipita- 
tions, and sedimentary accumulations involved in the crea- 
tive formation are admirably sketched in Ch. VI. of Dr. 
Winchell's " Sketches of Creation." The transmutation of 
the primary fluid into gross matter was something more 
than a natural evolution — it was a "creative action," 2 and 
the exact numerical proportions in which the chemical 
elements combine must be the result of a distinct creative 
impulse. 

The fourth creative formation was bioplasm, or that 
vitalized germinal matter which is instrumental in build- 
ing up the tissues and organs of plants (and animals). 
"And God said, Let the land sprout forth sprouts; herbs 
seeding seed, fruit-trees producing fruit after their kind 
wherein is their seed." The vital force which is concern- 

1 Cooke's "Religion and Chemistry," p. 129. 

2 North British Revieio, March, 18G8, p. 127; also Prof. Tait, in Nature, 
vol. iv. p. 271. 



C RE AT I OX: ITS HISTORY. 1(53 

ed in the formation of bioplasm (vitalized matter) must be 
regarded as distinct, on the one hand, from the physical 
forces which are efficient in the combinations and agsre- 
gations of non-living matter, 1 and, on the other hand, from 
that sentient, percipient, self-moving principle which con- 
stitutes the animal soul. "The 'life' of a man or an ani- 
mal is very different from what is termed the 'life' of a 
white blood, or a mucus, or a pus corpuscle ; inasmuch as 
many hundreds of white blood corpuscles, or elemental 
units of the tissues, might die in man without affecting the 
'life' of the man; moreover the man himself might per- 
ish, and some of the corpuscles remain alive. ... By the 
life of a man (or an animal) something very different is 
meant from what we understand by the life of each ele- 
mental unit of the organism, and the difference is not 
merely of degree but of kind." 2 Bioplasm, or cell-life, is 
generic ; soul -life is specific, individual, and indivisible. 
The former we regard as the direct effect of the Divine 
life, immanent in nature; the latter is an individualized 
centre of force, " a delegation of Divine power under lim- 
its of necessity." The physical forces are the action of 
God upon matter, the vital force is the immanence of God 
in matter. The first is mechanical, the second is vito-dy- 
namical. 

The fifth creative formation was the adjustment of the 
cosmical relations of the heavenly bodies, and the establish- 
ment of such atmospheric conditions as rendered the sun 
and moon the luminaries, or light-bearers, to the earth. 
" And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of 
heaven to divide the day and night." What these adjust- 
ments and collocations were, we are not able to say. The 

1 See Beale, " Protoplasm," pp. G9-71, 88, 108; Carpenter, "Human 
Physiology," pp. 46, 8G5-6. 2 Beale, "Protoplasm," pp. G7-8. 



1(54 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ultimate cause of the sun's luminosity is yet an unsolved 
problem. No explanation thus far offered has been accept- 
ed as adequate by the majority of scientific men. The 
statement of Genesis, which ascribes " the appointment of 
the sun and moon to be light-bearers to the earth" to a dis- 
tinct creative formation of some kind, is not, therefore, in- 
validated by science. 

The sixth creative formation was the material organisms 
of the varied species of "living souls" which people the 
waters ; the seventh, of those which people the air ; the 
eighth, of those which people the land. The final creative 
formation was the body of man, into which God breathed 
the breath of lives, and in consequence of which he be- 
came not merely a living soul, but a spiritual personality, 
a spirit-being. 

The question whether the material organisms in which 
the varied species of "living souls" are embodied were 
each the product of a special creation, or whether later and 
higher organisms were derived from prior and lower or- 
ganisms by "filiation," so that "new species are new births," 
is of little consequence to the interpretation of Genesis. 
The essential element of species is a spiritual entity. 
Specific existence is a positive existence, an immaterial 
existence, 1 " a soul of life." " It is not," says Dr. Winchell, 
" a primordial organic form : it is the life embodied within 
that form — the principle which rules its existence, moulds 
its features, determines its instincts, and conserves its spe- 
cific and individual identity. It is the principle embodied 
in the ovum — often a mere microscopic organism — which 
unfailingly holds fast to the specific type, and through all 
embryonic and immature existence guides the progress of 

1 See Agassiz's " Methods of Study in Natural History, " p. 287 ; also Grin- 
don, "Life, its Nature," etc., pp. 189-190. 



CREATIOX: ITS HISTORY. 165 

development in one direction, toward one end. Here is 
more than matter : here is a power which controls matter, 
controls chemistry — manifests its superiority to body, and 
asserts its dignity as spirit." The establishment of a ge- 
netic connection from the lowest to the highest material 
organism would not decide the question as to " the origin 
of species." The origin of species lies back of all material 
organisms. The species is a " spiritual germ," which acts 
upon and fashions the material elements, and through them 
expresses its own characteristics. That therefore which 
constitutes man a distinct species is not to be sought in 
anatomical peculiarities, but in spiritual attributes. It is 
the image of God and the inspiration of God which lifts 
man out of mere animal nature and makes him a, peculiar 
species — "one genus, and that genns the only one of the 
order." 1 Nor would this title be affected by any theory 
abont the mode of the creation of his body. There would 
be nothing more derogatory to Omnipotence, or even to 
human nature, in the conjecture that man did not become 
" a living personal spirit" until he had passed through va- 
rious stages of animal life, than in the doctrine that he 
was fashioned immediately out of the dust of the earth. 
There is as much dignity, or, if the reader please, as much 
humility of origin in the one case as in the other. The 
former is an extraordinary birth, consequent on some mys- 
terious action of the Deity on the course of nature; the 
latter is a miraculous formation. The Hebrew text is as 
favorable to the one hypothesis as to the other. The prepo- 
sition "of," or "out of," is not authorized by the original. 
Dr. AVhedon reads the whole passage as follows: "And 
God developed [w?l] the man — dust of the earth — and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and the man 

1 Cuvier, "Animal Kingdom," p. 32. 



166 



THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 



became to a living person." 1 If the body of the second 
Adam, the Divine Man, was a birth (a miraculous birth), 
we dp not see that any one need be shocked at the sug- 
gestion that the body of the first Adam was also an ex- 
traordinary or supernatural birth. Science may have free 
scope to settle the problem on purely inductive grounds. 

The following scheme will exhibit our conception of the 
cumulative character of the creative development : 



Origina- 
tions. 

Primal 
Element. 



Ether. 



Living) 
Soul, ) 



Kational } 
Spirit, ) 



" The Spirit of God 
moved upon the face 

of the abyss." 
Mechanical ) 
Force, ) 



Inspiration. 



Formations (SUBS = ^26?)- 



Energy. 

Vortex 
Motion, 
Molecular 
Energy, 
Radiant 
Energy, [ 



Chemical Atoms, 



Sensible and Latent Heat„ 



Radiant Heat and Light. 



fw 1 

•< Water, 



I Energy, ^^ ^ gBj ^ 
Vitality Bioplasm =Plants. 




Mollusks, 
Fishes, 
Reptiles, 
Birds, 
k Mammals, 



3. Creation was consecutive. The creative epochs fol- 
low each other in a manifest Order of Thought. The 
reasons for this order are obvious on the face of the sa- 
cred narrative, so that we are constrained to regard the 



1 Methodist Quarterly Review, January, 18G7, p. 143. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 167 

creative process as the realization of a purpose, the devel- 
opment of a foreseen and predetermined plan. 

This is clearly manifest from the aptly styled " pauses 
of contemplation" which occur in the progress of the sa- 
cred narrative. At each stage of the creative work the 
Deity is represented as surveying that already finished, 
and pronouncing it "good" (ni-j = K :aAoy, fair and good). 
This may seem strange when viewed apart from the com- 
pleted plan. What good, one might ask, is the light when 
there is no eye to see ? What good the expanse of heaven, 
the land and seas, with none to inhabit them ? What 
good the plants with none to use them ? But the Intel- 
ligence that foresaw the end toward which the creative 
process was tending could recognize the fitness and the 
beauty of each new element of creation as contributing 
to that completed whole, which, when realized, is pro- 
nounced " very good." Thus each stage of the advanc- 
ing work of creation is pronounced " good " in view of its 
subordination to the ultimate purpose, which is the high- 
est " good." Each is a step upward and onward, and is 
" good " as a preparation and a means for a better that 
is yet to come. Thus the reading of the sacred Hymn of 
Creation leaves the decided impression that a chain of 
subordination and interdependence runs through the 
entire organic and inorganic creation, binding; the wdiole 
together in an ideal unity. All the laws and results of 
the past are brought forward, and become a prelude and 
a preparation for the future developments. The earlier 
stages of the creation furnish the conditions for the later 
stages, and are in some sense a prophecy of what is to 
come. The successive stages of creation are thus results, 
in part, of a " nature" — a constitution and order of things 
already established, and in part of a new impulse carry- 
ing nature forward toward the predestinated goal. 



168 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The more extended our acquaintance with the actual 
economy of nature, the more does the subordination and 
interdependence of the creative epochs become manifest, 
and the more are we convinced that " the law of consecu- 
tion " which reveals itself in the sacred narrative is a real 
law of the universe. 

The existence of radiant energy (heat and light), is the 
fundamental precondition of all the subsequent creative 
formations. It is more universal than gravitation, and 
absolutely co-extensive with the universe, 1 the connect- 
ing bond between all worlds. It determines the temper- 
ature of space, of the atmosphere, and of the earth, and, 
in fact, most of the phenomena of meteorology. It is es- 
sential to the life and growth of the plant, and ultimately 
of the animal; without it, indeed, no life could exist upon 
the earth. Next in importance is the atmosphere, which 
has peculiar relations to light and heat. It softens the 
intensity of light, and diffuses it in every direction ; it ab- 
sorbs and retains heat, and, infolding the earth as with a 
mantle, keeps it warm. It conditions the formation of 
clouds, and determines the fall of genial showers. It is 
the medium in which combustion and change, and all the 
phenomena of life, take place. Its oxygen has been the 
chief world-builder, and its nitrogen has been aptly styled 
the zoogen or generator of life. The gathering of the 
waters into lakes and seas, the phenomena of aqueous cir- 
culation, the formation of soils through its agency — these 
were all preconditions of vegetable life. " Reasoning 
deductively, it is equally presumable that vegetable life 
preceded animal life in order of appearance. . . .Vegeta- 
tion is capable of drawing its sustenance from the mineral 

1 Hersehel, "Familiar Lectures on Science,'' p. 218; "Outlines of As- 
tronomy," § 590; North British Review, 18GS, p. 127. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 169 

world, while animals rely exclusively upon organic food. 
The vegetable stands between the animal and the mineral, 
performing a sort of commissary function in behalf of the 
animal. The animal — even the carnivorous animal — im- 
plies the vegetable. All things considered, we are led to 
believe that plant life had a history upon our earth a 
full epoch before the existence of animals." 1 Finally, 
all geological preparations and ideas converge in man. 
"The beneficent provisions of the earth's crust not only 
prophesy man, but they reach their finality in man. It 
was only for human uses that the coal was treasured in 
the recesses of the earth ; for human uses alone the 
mountains have lifted up their burdens of iron ; for hu- 
man uses only the grandest movements of geological his- 
tory elaborated and distributed the soils. It is only for 
man that the forests yield their abundant supplies of tim- 
ber and fuel. For man the edible and medicinal vegeta- 
bles were provided. For man the natures of the domes- 
tic animals were moulded, and their domestic attachments 
are directed to no other being." 2 Thus through the long 
ages of geological time the earth was preparing for the 
dwelling-place of man, and in the earliest forms of ani- 
mal life his coming was prefigured and foretold. 

4. The completed creation is a Divine harmony. This 
is the abiding impression which the sublime Psalm of Crea- 
tion leaves upon our minds as we close the book. It has 
taught us this final lesson, that the universe is the manifes- 
tation of one grand creative thoughts as comprehensive in 
the diversity of its parts as it is complete in the unity of 
its plan. "We learn, not merely that God made all the parts 
of the universe, but that He made each part for a specific 

1 Dr. Winchell, "Sketches of Creation," pp. 06, 67. 

2 Dr. Winchell, " Sketches of Creation," p. 374. 



170 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

purpose, and that all the separate and successive parts are 
chords in nature's music, parts of creation's anthem of 
perpetual praise. The Symbolical Hymn of Creation, 
with its striking parallelisms, its balance and correlation 
of parts, its harmonic numbers (3 and 7 and 10, the sym- 
bols of perfection), its pauses and refrains, its rhythm and 
unity symbolizes the universal prevalence of Law in nature ; 
reveals a changeless Order in respect to space and time, to 
number and form ; suggests harmonious relations between 
terrestrial conditions and cosmical adjustments, between 
organic and inorganic existence, and accords with the won- 
derful rhythm which pervades the Cosmos. 

The glorious mansion is first built, then furnished. A 
triad of days is devoted to its architecture, a triad to its 
occupants. The former describes a series of dividings 
and combinings, the latter portrays a series of formations 
and vilifications. " The last day of each era includes 
one w^ork typical of the era, and another related to it in 
essential points, but also prophetic of the future. Vegeta- 
tion, while, for physical reasons, a part of the creation of 
the third day, was also prophetic of the future Organic 
era, in which the progress of life was the grand character- 
istic. The record thus accords with the fundamental 
principle in history that the characteristic of an age has 
its beginnings within the age preceding. So, again, man, 
while like other mammals in structure, even to the homolo- 
gies of every bone and muscle, was endowed with a spirit- 
ual nature which looked forward to another era, that of 
spiritual existence. The seventh " day," the day of rest 
from the work of creation, is man's period of preparation 
for that new existence, and it is to promote this special 
end that, in strict parallelism, the Sabbath follows man's 
six days of work." 1 

1 Dana, "Geology," pp. 745, 746. 



CREATION: ITS HISTORY. 171 

The following scheme will exhibit the completeness of 
the parallelism : 

INORGANIC ERA. ORGANIC ERA. 

I. Day Luminosity. IV. Day Luminaries. 

\ Water, v ~ \ Marine Animals, Rep- 

*" { Atmosphere. ' ( tiles, Birds. 

III. Day Dry Land. VI. Day Mammals. 

VEGETATION. MAN. 



Note. 

The Principle of Teleology not affected by the Theory of Evolution. — "It 
is necessary to remark that there is a wider teleology which is not touched 
by the doctrine of evolution, but is actually based upon the fundamental prop- 
osition of evolution. . . . The teleological and the mechanical views of na- 
ture are not necessarily mutually exclusive ; on the contrary, the more purely 
a mechanist the speculator is, the more firmly does he assume a primordial 
molecular arrangement, of which all the phenomena of the universe are the 
consequences ; and the more completely thereby is he at the mercy of the 
teleologist, who can always defy him to disprove that this primordial molec- 
ular arrangement was not intended to evolve the phenomena of the universe." 
— Prof. Huxley, in The Academy for October, 1869, No. 1, p. 13. 



^72 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

CONSERVATION. THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 

" The relations which unite the creature and the Creator compose a prob- 
lem obscure and delicate, the two extreme solutions of which are equally false 
and perilous : on the one hand, a God so passes into the world that He seems 
to be absorbed in it ; on tbe other hand, a God so separated from the world, 
that the world has the appearance of going on without Him; on both sides 
there is equal excess, equal danger, equal error/' — Cousin. 

In the preceding chapters we have endeavored to pre- 
sent the Christian doctrine concerning God, and concern- 
ing the world as the work of God. God is a person — the 
unconditioned Personality, all of whose determinations 
are from Himself. And creation is the voluntary act of 
God, who freely chooses to award existence to other be- 
ings distinct from Himself. If our scientific conceptions 
are in harmony with this doctrine, we are safe from the 
temptations of materialism on the one hand, and proof 
against the seductions of pantheism on the other. Hence- 
forth we must regard the unconditioned Being as essen- 
tially distinct from the material universe. Matter with 
its phenomena is limited in extent and duration, God is 
infinite and eternal. Extension is not an attribute of the 
Divine substance. Succession is not a mode of God's 
eternity. The Divine life infinitely transcends the dy- 
namical life of the universe. 

Still there is some connection, some relation between 
God and the world. Of this we have the fullest assur- 
ance, however incapable we may be of comprehending the 



COXSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 173 

mode. The material universe is the product of the Di- 
vine efficiency, and therefore the first and most funda- 
mental relation of God to the world is that of causality. 
The universe exists solely through the will of God. It 
had a beginning, and the beginning of the world was the 
beginning of time. Prior to that beginning there was no 
succession, no limitation, no finite existence ; only the 
eternal and infinite One. The creative efficiency was put 
forth, and matter, as the statical condition necessary to 
the manifestation of physical phenomena, began to be. 
The Spirit of God moved upon the formless abyss, and 
phenomenal change commenced its history. With mo- 
tion and consequent succession there arose the relations 
of time. With the differentiation and collocation of mat- 
ter there arose the relations of space. And the wealth 
and fullness of inorganic and organic nature sprang up 
under the directive, formative, and vitalizing energy of 
the Spirit of God. 

But is there no further relation of God to the world, 
beyond that which is involved in the primary and solitary 
fact of creative causality? Did the connection of God 
with his works terminate in an event which belongs to 
the inapproachable past? Did the Creator, in the begin- 
ning, give self-being to the substance of the universe, and 
endow it with active forces, so that it can exist and act 
apart from and independent of God ? Have the laws of 
nature a real efficiency, so that the further agency of God 
is dispensed with, and the universe can pursue a fixed and 
inevitable path of self-development without his control 
and oversight ? Or is God still immanent in nature, up- 
holding all substance, the power of all force, the life of 
all life, shaping all forms, and organizing all systems? 
In a word, has the Divine efficiency remained, since the 



174: THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

first creative act, in sublime repose, or does " the Father 
work hitherto," sustaining, moving, vitalizing, and perfect- 
ing the universe — the Conservator^ as well as the Creator, 
of all things? This is the living question of our times, 
whether viewed from the scientific or the theological stand- 
point. The mental posture we assume in relation to this 
question must determine our systems of philosophy and 
religion. 

The language of Scripture on this point is direct and 
explicit, and unless our interpretation thereof needs to be 
modified in order to place it in harmony with the general 
spirit and tenor of Christian teaching, or with the unques- 
tionable facts of nature, which are also a revelation of 
God, there can be no difficulty in determining the Chris- 
tian doctrine of God's relation to the world. It teaches 
us, not only that all things were made by God, but that 
all things are sustained by God. God is still the first and 
immediate cause of all existence. " He givetli to all life, 
and breath, and all things " (Acts xvii. 25). The created 
universe is in complete and ceaseless dependence on the 
Divine causality; it consists by the same will and the 
same word by which it was first originated. He who 
made all things, continues to "uphold all things by the 
word of his power " (Heb. i. 3). " He is before all things, 
and by Him all things consist " (Col. i. 17). The uni- 
verse is not self-existent, nor self-evolved, neither has it 
any inherent power of self-perpetuation. Notwithstand- 
ing the individuality and self-life conceded to the creat- 
ure, it has no independent existence apart from God, 
"for of Him, and through Him, and for Him are all 
things, to whom be glory forever." (Eom. xi. 36.) 

The recognition of a real presence of God in nature, 
and of the immediate agency of God in the production 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 175 

of all natural phenomena, has been a characteristic of the 
religious consciousness in all ages. This consciousness of 
the presence of God embracing and sustaining all worldly 
being is, in fact, an essential content of all vital piety. 
" It is only a mechanical deism, a barren rationalistic the- 
ology, or a piety meagre in the last degree, which has in- 
terposed a chasm between God and his creatures." The 
religious spirit is remarkably developed in the Psalms of 
David, and here all the operations of nature are spoken 
of as the operations of Deity. The thunder is " the voice 
of God." The lightnings are "his arrows." The earth- 
quakes and volcanoes are produced directly by Him. 
" He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth ; He toucheth 
the hills, and they smoke." " He giveth snow like wool, 
He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes, He casteth forth his 
ice like morsels; who can stand before his cold? He 
causeth his winds to blow, and the waters flow." "He 
covereth the heavens with clouds, He prepareth rain for 
the earth." "He watereth the hills from his chambers, 
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of his work." "'He 
causeth grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the serv- 
ice of man." " He giveth to the beast his food, and to 
the young ravens which cry." " All creatures wait upon 
Him, and He giveth them their meat in due season. He 
openeth his hand, they are filled with good. He hideth 
his face, and they are troubled. He taketh away their 
breath, the}' die and return to the dust. He sendeth forth 
his Sjnrit, and they are created ; and He reneweth the 
face of the earth." To the eye of the inspired writer, the 
agency of God is concerned in every process and every 
product of nature. " There are diversities of operations, 
but it is the same God who loorlceth all in all? His will 
and his power are the only real forces in nature. 



176 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The interpretation which the Church has given of this 
teaching of the Sacred Scriptures has been remarkably 
uniform through the ages. She has always taught that 
the continuance of the world, no less than its origination, 
has its ground in the Divine causality ; and every theory 
of the relation of God to the world which has sacrificed 
the doctrine of the all-embracing, all-sustaining presence 
of God in the universe, as an immediate and real efficiency, 
has always been rejected as Pelagian, Rationalistic, or 
Deistic. The conception of the Divine conservation of 
the world as the simple, uniform, and universal agency of 
God sustaining all created substances and powers in every 
moment of their existence and activity, is the catholic doc- 
trine of Christendom. In attempting the difficult, perhaps 
impossible task of conceiving the mode of this Divine con- 
servation, different theories have been developed. But 
whatever the conception formed, whether that of the Di- 
vine co-operation {concur sus Dei generalise as taught by 
St. Augustine and the Schoolmen ; or that of a Divine in- 
termediate impulse (impulsits non cogens), as taught by 
Luther; or that of the Divine sustentation {sustentatio 
Dei), as held by the Arminians ; or even that of the super- 
intendence and control of the Deity, as adopted by some 
modern religious scientists, 1 they all repose on the ulti- 

1 The theory of "Divine superintendence and control" falls very little, if 
any thing, short of the ever-present and pervading energy which we advo- 
cate. At least, the arguments which would establish such a relation of the 
Deity to the material universe as amounts to "superintendence and control," 
would go far to establish the doctrine of a real presence and agency of God 
pervading and upholding all nature. Superintendence and control imply 
some agency, some efficiency, and some intervention of righteousness or mercy 
to secure other ends than those secured by the established course of nature, 
for whoever overrides steps on a field beyond his ordinary rule. The phys- 
ical laws are, therefore, simply God's uniform mode of governing the world. 
This is the conclusion which is reached by Proctor ("Other Worlds than 
Ours "). In his chapter on "Supervision and Control " (ch. xiii.), he says : 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 177 

mate truth that whatever is created can have no necessary 
or independent existence; the same power which called 
it into being must continue to uphold it in being; and 
were God to withdraw his conserving efficiency the creat- 
ure would be immediately annihilated. 1 

St. Augustine, " the father of systematic theology," con- 
ceived the Divine conservation of the world as a contin- 
ual creation {creatio continua). He taught that the life 
and activity of the creatures, collectively and individually, 
are ceaselessly and absolutely dependent on and condi- 
tioned by the almighty and omnipresent agency of God. 
" AVere He to withdraw from the world his creative pow- 
er, it would straightway lapse into nothingness." 2 Thomas 
Aquinas, " the Angelical Doctor," who is regarded as 
having brought Scholastic theology to its highest develop- 
ment, held the same views on this subject as Augustine. 
He taught that " preservation is an ever-renewed crea- 
tion." 3 All creaturely causes derive their efficiency di- 
rectly and continually from the First Cause. 4 

Theological writers of more recent times have assented 

"Thus we are led to the conclusion that all things happen according to set 
physical laws ; and without, by any means, adopting the view that the Al- 
mighty exercises no special control over his universe, we see strong reason to 
believe that the laws which He has assigned to it are sufficient for the con- 
trol of all things. Indeed, as far as all things take place in accordance with 
laws which the Almighty must assuredly have Himself ordained, we may say 
that every event which has happened or will happen throughout infinite time 
is the direct work and indicates the direct purpose and will of Almighty God'''' 
(pp. 329, 332); and further, "He who made the laws may annul or suspend 
them at his pleasure" (p. 333). 

1 St. Augustine's " De Civitate Dei," xii. 25, 26; Neander's "Church 
Hi-tory," vol. ii. p. 005 ; Nitzsch, "System of Christian Doctrine," p. 11)3; 
Midler's " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. p. 248 ; Harris's " Pre-Adam- 
ite Earth," p. 103 ; Young's " Creator and Creation," pp. 57, 58 ; Chalmers's 
"Astronomical Discourses," Dis. iii. pp. 91, 98. 

2 " De Civitate Dei," xii. 25 ; xiii. 26. 3 Contra Gentiles, ii. 38. 
4 " Summa Universalis," pt. i. q. 105, art. 5. 

M 



178 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

to these views with notable uniformity. Dr. Samuel 
Clarke, the intimate friend of Newton, whose " Lectures 
on the Being and Attributes of God," and on the " Evi- 
dences of Natural and Revealed Religion," secured for 
him a European renown as a Christian philosopher, states 
the doctrine of the immediate agency of the Deity with 
remarkable explicitness. " All things that are done in 
the world are done either immediately by God Himself, 
or by created intelligent beings. Matter being evidently 
not capable of any laws or powers whatsoever, any more 
than it is capable of intelligence, except only this one 
negative power, that every part of it will of itself always 
and necessarily continue in that state, whether of rest or 
motion, wherein it at present is. So that all those things 
which we commonly say are the effects of the natural 
powers of matter and laws of motion, of gravitation, at- 
traction, or the like, are indeed (if we will speak strictly 
and properly) the effect of GooVs acting upon matter con- 
tinually and every moment, either immediately by Him- 
self, or mediately by some created intelligent beings. . . . 
Consequently there is no such thing as what we com- 
monly call the course of nature, or t\\e power of nature. 
The course of nature, truly and properly speaking, is 
nothing else but the will of God, producing certain ef- 
fects in a continued, regular, constant, and uniform man- 
ner." 1 

Dr. Clarke may properly be regarded as the representa- 
tive of the metaphysi co-theological thought of the seven- 
teenth century. No apology is needed at this hour for 

1 "Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion," Prop. xiv. Dugald 
Stewart, after quoting the above, adds, "My opinion on this subject coin- 
cides with that of Dr. Clarke " (" Philosophy of the Active and Moral Pow- 
ers of Man," vol. ii. p. 29). 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 17Q 

presenting John Wesley as the best representative of the 
evangelical movement of the eighteenth century which 
adhered firmly to the ipsissima verba of the sacred 
writers. He expresses the evangelical conception with 
admirable clearness and force : " God is also the sup- 
porter of all the things which He has made. He beareth, 
upholdeth, sustaineth all created things by the word of 
his power ; by the same powerful word which brought 
them out of nothing. As this was absolutely necessary 
for the beginning of their existence, it is equally so for 
the continuance of it ; were his almighty influence with- 
drawn, they could not subsist a moment longer. . . . He 
preserves them in their several relations, connections, and 
dependencies, so as to compose one system of beings, to 
form one entire universe, according to the counsel of his 
will. . . . He is the true author of all the motion in the 
universe. All matter of whatever kind is absolutely and 
totally inert. It does not, can not in any case move it- 
self. . . . ISTeither the sun, moon, nor stars move themselves. 
They are moved every moment by the Almighty hand 
that made the?h. vi These views are earnestly maintained 
by Xitzsch and Muller, Chalmers and Harris, Young and 
Whedon, Channing and Martineau. 

The religious life of the present age, in all its purest 
and most vigorous manifestations, still clings with passion- 
ate ardor to the belief that God is every where present, 
and that the ceaseless, uniform, and direct agency of God 
is still upholding, moving, vivifying, and controlling all 
things. The harp of David is restrung and swept with a 
firmer hand. It rings with nobler conceptions, and swells 
into diviner harmonies. God is recognized as " above all, 
through all, and in all." " In Him we live and move, 

1 " Sermons," vol. ii. pp. 178, 179. 



180 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and have our being." The Christian still believes, with a 
fuller and richer assurance, that God's presence — 

" Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees." 

He still hears the voice of God in the thunder at mid- 
night, and in the rustling of the forest leaves at noonday. 
He sees the beauty of God in " the silent faces of the 
clouds," and in the virgin blush of the solitary flower. He 
sees the life of God in the activities of organic nature, 
and marks his power and presence in the falling rain 
and noiseless dew, the flowing river and the restless ocean. 
The seasons, as they come round to him in their grateful 
vicissitudes, bring to him fresh tokens of the goodness of 
God, and inspire him with perennial joy. 

" These as they change, Almighty Father, these 
Are but the varied God. The rolling year 

Is full of Thee 

But wandering oft, with brute, unconscious gaze, 
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand 
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ; 
Works in the secret deep ; shoots, steaming, thence 
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the spring ; 
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day ; 
Feeds every creature, hurls the tempest forth ; 
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, 
With transport touches all the springs of life." 1 

A discussion of the Christian doctrine of the relation 
of God to the world can scarcely be regarded as adequate 
and complete which keeps not constantly in view the the- 
ories of certain "advanced thinkers" that conflict with 
the views here presented. We do not now refer to the 
extreme opinions of the Atheists, who deny the existence 
of God, proclaim the eternity of matter, and regard force 
as an inherent and essential attribute of matter, by which 
all the phenomena of nature and humanity are necessarily 
1 Thomson's " Seasons." 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 181 

evolved ; nor of the Pantheists, on the other hand, who. 
deny the personality of God, and represent the Deity as 
an eternal natura naturans, which by a spontaneous and 
unconscious development is forever emerging as the na- 
tura naturata. For these thinkers there, can be no con- 
ceivable Providence. " Science has shown us that we are 
under the dominion of general laws, and that there is no 
special Providence. Nature acts with fearful uniformity ; 
stern as fate, absolute as a tyrant, merciless as death ; too 
vast to praise ; too inexplicable to worship ; too inexora- 
ble to propitiate ; it has no ear for prayer, no heart for 
sympathy, no arm to save." * 

At present we are to deal with the theories of a class 
of scientists who believe in the existence of God — of a 
personal God, and who profess the greatest reverence for 
the Sacred Scriptures, but whose God is clearly not the 
God the Bible reveals. This general class of thinkers 
may be subdivided into subordinate schools, as they verge 
toward one or the other of the extremes above indicated. 

1. One school is represented by such writers as Prof. 
Tyndall, Dr. H. Pence Jones, and Dr. Bastian. Their fun- 
damental principle is " the absolute inseparability of mat- 
ter and force ;" consequently they do not recognize the 
Divine Will as the sole and immediate cause of the mo- 
tion and life of the universe. Molecular attractions and 
repulsions are the primal forces communicated to matter 
at the Creation, and from " the self-activity of these pri- 
mary forces " result all the forms of energy in nature, 
whether organic or inorganic. " Our idea of the grand- 
eur, the unity, and the power of the first cause," writes 
Dr. H. Pence Jones, " will surely not be lessened if we 
can show that one law of the union of matter and force 

1 Holyoake, " Discussion with Townley," p. 68. 



182 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and of the conservation of energy obtains throughout the 
organic as well as the inorganic creation." 1 Here we 
have a close approximation, if not intentionally, yet logic- 
ally, to the Atheistic extreme. The transition seems easy, 
if not inevitable, to the recognition of force as an inher- 
ent and necessary attribute /)f matter which may be eter- 
nal. Then what need of a God, or what place for one, if 
the forces and laws of matter are adequate to the expla- 
nation of all phenomena ? As Martineau aptly suggests, 
" These properties and powers once installed in the cos- 
mic executive are too apt, like mayors of the palace, to 
set up for themselves," and eject the real Lord and God. 

2. Another school is represented by such men as Profess- 
ors Owen, Huxley, and Baden Powell, who deny the ul- 
timate distinction between matter and force, and regard 
both as phenomenal manifestations of some " unknown 
substratum" — a supramaterial physis (Qiktkj) which is 
identical with the Divine substance, the natura naturans 
of Spinoza. To these minds the universe discloses noth- 
ing but immutable law, absolute continuity, and necessary 
development. " The grand principle of the self-evolving 
pavers of nature" 2 and " the grand inductive conclusion 
of universal and eternal order," 3 are the bases of all ra- 
tional theology. Here we encounter a phase of thought 
which verges toward the extreme of Pantheism. The 
Deity himself is conditioned in his action by the eternal 
and immutable laws of nature, and can not be conceived 
as a living Will exercising control over and subordinat- 
ing these laws to higher moral ideas and ends. This doc- 

1 Croonian Lecture, " On Matter and Force," p. 94. Is it not significant 
that Dr. Jones must write his "First Cause " without the initial capitals ? 

2 Powell, "Essays and Reviews," p. 139. 

3 Powell, "Christianity and Judaism," p. 11. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 183 

trine, Prof. Powell admits, " summarily overrides the Mo- 
saic creation, renders miracles irrational, excludes a special 
providence, and, we may add, dismisses prayer as a useless 
absurdity." 

3. A third and intermediate school assumes the exist- 
ence of a plastic nature (vis fori niativd) intermediate be- 
tween the Creator and his work, by which the phenomena 
of nature are produced. This hypothesis was propounded 
by Cudworth, and has lately been reproduced by Dr. Lay- 
cock and Mr. Murphy under the name of "unconscious 
organizing intelligence," to explain those facts of organic 
nature which come under the relation of means and ends, 
or structure and function. This hypothesis must deflect 
toward one or other of the extremes indicated, when it at- 
tempts to decide in what subject this " unconscious intel- 
ligence" inheres. If it be said that it inheres in matter, 
the tendency must be toward Atheism ; that it inheres 
in spirit, then the tendency is toward Pantheism. 

Common to all these hypotheses is the denial of the di- 
rect, immediate, and voluntary agency of God in nature 
as the only real and efficient force. They are all attempts 
to account for the conservation of the world by " the con- 
servation and transformation of energy," that is, by sec- 
ondary causes, which in reality are only conditions and not 
real causes. They interpose a chasm between God and 
the world. The universe is a self-supporting, self-evolv- 
ing machine, and God is an isolated, incommunicable ab- 
straction. 

It is to be deplored that certain Christian writers have 
deemed it necessary, on what they consider moral grounds, 
to give countenance to theories which in one form or an- 
other ascribe a real efficiency to natural laws, and dis- 
pense with the immediate and ceaseless agency of God in 



184 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the conservation of the world. They imagine that some 
such hypothesis is needed to vindicate the Divine honor 
and righteousness. In their imagination, it derogates 
from the Divine majesty to be ceaselessly concerned and 
busied with the minute and insignificant operations of 
nature, or even cognizant of them. His eternal sereni- 
ty would be disturbed, and his unsullied purity compro- 
mised by any connection therewith, and He would be- 
come responsible for the disorders and abnormities, the 
evils and sufferings, which appear in the world. He must, 
therefore, be released from a constant and direct connec- 
tion with the universe. He must leave nature to the nee- 
essary predestinated course of self-evolution, or, if He in- 
terpose at all, it must be in some exceptional, extraor- 
dinary, and supernatural way ; so that, if there be a prov- 
idential administration, every act and incident thereof 
must be a miracle. 

We respect the motives, but we can not approve the pro- 
cedure or commend the logic of these theologians. The 
moral difficulties they would by these hypotheses evade 
still remain in all their force. "Any hypothesis which 
essays to relieve these difficulties from pressing against 
Providence only transfers and leaves them to press with 
equal force against an original creation." 1 The Supreme 
Intelligence which originally endowed matter with its 
properties, and ordained the laws of force, must have fore- 
seen all possible combinations, interactions, and conse- 
quences, and, if it be proper to speak of responsibilities in 
this connection, must be as responsible for these conse- 
quences as though they were the direct effect of immedi- 
ate volition. An agent is accountable not only for his 
acts, but for all the foreseen consequences of his acts. 

1 Dr. Harris, " Pre-Adamite Earth," p. 104. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 185 

The solution of these difficulties must be sought in an- 
other field. 

Meantime it may be observed that these theologians af- 
fect a concern for the Divine honor which even revelation 
itself does not confess. It teaches that all the operations 
of nature are the operations of God, and no apologies are 
offered for consequences which, to short-sighted men, may 
appear to conflict with righteousness % or love. Does the 
earthquake tear the mountain asunder, and spread devas- 
tation and death throughout the surrounding country % it 
is the Lord who roareth from Zion, and uttereth his voice 
from Jerusalem ; He causeth the habitation of the shep- 
herds to mourn, and the top of Carmel to wither. 1 The 
people bow their heads with reverence, and in their chas- 
tening sorrows see the hand of God. But these philo- 
sophic theologians must correct the language of Scripture, 
and tone it down in harmony with the capricious demands 
of modern scientists. The language of the ancient Prophet 
of God is simply the expression of a childlike and subject- 
ive conception of nature which modern science has emp- 
tied of all its significance. The earthquake was the prod- 
uct of "secondary causes" — of inherent nature - forces 
which now exist and act independent of the agency and 
control of God. To maintain the consistency of their hy- 
pothesis, they will even affirm that the catastrophe was un- 
foreseen, and did not come within the purview of the cre- 
ative plan. The exuberance of the Oriental imagination 
has thrown a haze of unreality over all the descriptions of 
natural phenomena, and therefore the language of the in- 
spired Psalmist must be amended. When he tells us that 
God "covereth the heavens with clouds, and prepareth 
rain for the earth," we must paraphrase after the follow- 

1 Amos i. 2. 



186 THE THE I STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ing fashion : " In the beginning God gave to water those 
properties, and determined those cosmical conditions which, 
when coincident, result in the formation of clouds and the 
descent of rain !" This, we are told, is the interpretation 
which modern science demands. Conservation is simply 
" the indestructibility of matter and the persistence of 
force," and Providence is " the uniformity of natural law." 
We must no longer believe that God is a present, imma- 
nent, ahd diffusive Power and Life in nature. To find the 
connection between God and nature we must remount by 
a process of regressive thought to the first, and, indeed, the 
last act of creation — the primal origination of matter and 
motion. So that if now piety would stand face to face with 
its supreme object, it is compelled to fling itself back into 
the abyss of duration, before the mountains were brought 
forth, or ever the earth and the world were formed. 

Practically, this conception gives us a universe without 
a God; for the world, once created, and stocked with the 
necessary forces and adjustments and laws, will henceforth 
govern itself. It will run its predestinated course in 
obedience to an original impulse, and realize a perpetual 
motion without further oversight or care or control. The 
world is a huge soulless machine, and theology is reduced 
to Mechanical Deism ! But surely no one pretends that 
this theory satisfies the demands of Scripture language, 
and fills up the complement of its idea. Practically, it 
renders the Word of God of no effect. 

This theory is equally inadequate to satisfy the crav- 
ings of the human heart. " The heart demands a present 
God — a God who is never far from any one of us; it de- 
mands the immediate presence and constant care of a 
heavenly Father ; it demands, when it looks upon nature, 
to feel that God is there, not in his laws only, but in con- 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 187 

scious and perpetual action ; not in the sense of a Wis- 
dom and Goodness, embodied in arrangements contrived 
and perfected long ago, as the mind of an artificer may 
be said to be present in the work of his hands, but in the 
sense of a Love co-present to every aspect of nature, and 
a Will inworking in every event that takes place." 1 " Re- 
acting against the usurpation of secondary causation, 
wearied of its distance from the Fountain-head, it flings 
itself back with pathetic repentance into the arms of the 
Primary Infinitude." 

The relation of God to the world, however, is a prob- 
lem which can not be solved by an appeal to sentiment. 
The religious consciousness may be the counter-proof, but 
it can not be the starting-point of a philosophy which aims 
at the explanation of things — that is, of their origin and 
continuance — by principles and ideas of the reason. For 
what is meant by understanding , but translation into ideas, 
and comprehending under necessary principles ? Any 
theory which essays such explanation of things must there- 
fore commend itself to the logical understanding, and be 
capable of logical construction. 

ISow the various hypotheses which seek to dispense 
with the immediate agency of God, and to explain the 
conservation of the world by "secondary" or natural 
agencies, when critically examined do not satisfy the un- 
derstanding. However convenient for the evasion of dif- 
ficulties, however plausible for their simplicity and man- 
ageable clearness, on a closer inspection they are found to 
be inadequate. 

1. There is the hypothesis of natural law. The world 
is governed by general laws which are fixed and im- 
mutable. These laws were impressed upon matter at the 

1 Pledge, "Reason and Religion," p. 74. 



188 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

beginning, and in obedience to them the universe has 
gradually evolved itself in rigid continuity and necessary 
order. No room, therefore, is left for special direction 
or providential control, and if the term " providence " is 
at all permissible, it is only as a synonym for natural lav:. 

It is affirmed by the advocates of this hypothesis that 
"the grand principle of the uniformity and constancy of 
natural causes is a primary law of belief so strongly en- 
tertained by the truly inductive inquirer that he can not 
conceive the possibility of its failure." 1 As science ex- 
tends her domain and pushes her discoveries into new re- 
gions, cases that once seemed anomalous are found to be 
conformable to this general rule, and therefore we are jus- 
tified in assuming the absolute uniformity and inviola- 
bility of natural law through all the realms of time and 
space. Thus we reach " the grand inductive conclusion 
of the universal and eternal order of nature." But an 
overruling providence must step beyond ordinary rule : 
it must control, interrupt, modify, or in some manner give 
a new direction to the action of nature, and thus become 
s^<?rnatural — that is, miraculous. So that were we even 
to concede the phenomenal reality of the miracles record- 
ed in the New Testament, and to accept them as "ob- 
jects of faith, but not as the evidences of faith," still mod- 
ern science would forbid us to believe that any supernat- 
ural interposition can now take place. Not a single in- 
stance of counteraction or control of natural law can now 
be authenticated, and therefore we must regard special 
providence as incredible and impossible. 

The first error, and indeed the fundamental error, of 
this hypothesis is the assumption that the absolute uni- 
formity and permanence of nature is " a primary law of 

1 "Essays and Reviews," p. 102. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 1§9 

belief" and therefore the natural philosopher "must set 
out with clear ideas of the possible and the impossible." 

Now we grant that had we such a priori conviction of 
the permanence and immutability of nature, then it would 
be impossible to prove that the order of nature had a be- 
ginning, or that there could be any interference with the 
agencies or laws of nature by a supernatural power. " No 
evidence adduced in favor of a creation or of Divine in- 
terposition could ever be so strong as to overcome the 
necessary belief in direct opposition to it." 1 But the 
truth is, we have no such intuitive conviction. Our be- 
lief has none of the characteristics of an a priori intu- 
ition : it is neither self-evident nor universal nor necessa- 
ry. John Stuart Mill has successfully shown that this be- 
lief is the result of experience, that it is entertained only 
by the cultivated and educated few, and that even among 
such it has been of slow growth. Therefore he properly 
concludes that " the uniformity in the succession of events 
. . . must be received, not as the law of the universe, but 
of that portion only which is within the range of our 
means of observation, with a reasonable degree of exten- 
sion to adjacent cases." 2 

Belief in the uniformity of nature is an induction from 
experience, and not a primary intuition. And by the 
word experience, in this connection, we must understand 
not the experience of one man only, or of one generation, 
but the accumulated experience of mankind in all ages 
as registered in books or transmitted by tradition. But 
how limited, at best, is human experience — how circum- 
scribed both in time and space ! Compared with the vast- 
ness and duration of the universe, it is narrowed down to 
a mere point. All experience, be it that of the individ- 

1 McCosh, "Intuitions," p. 276. 2 "Logic," vol. ii. pp. 117, 118. 



190 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ual or of mankind, is only finite. To infer a universal 
law from a limited number of instances is to violate to 
the uttermost the fundamental canon of logic that "no 
conclusion must contain more than was contained in the 
premises from which it is drawn." 1 Inductive science 
can only give us the contingent and the relative, it can 
never attain to the necessary and the absolute. By ab- 
straction, comparison, and generalization it may furnish 
us with general notions, but it can not give us universal 
principles. " Experience can not conduct us to universal 
and necessary truths — not to universal, because she has 
not tried all cases ; not to necessary, because necessity is 
not a matter to which experience can testify." 2 The in- 
tuitive reason, we doubt not, is furnished with necessary 
and universal principles which may illuminate the path- 
way of experience, and give meaning and law to the facts 
of sensation, so that man may become " the Interpreter of 
Nature ;" but certainly the absolute uniformity of nature 
is not one of these ideas. 

Notwithstanding the boasted mathematical precision of 
the inductive method, and the rigid exactness of its re- 
sults, scientific men are not wholly exempt from the com- 
mon infirmity of hasty generalization. They are per- 
petually liable to the temptation to draw immense con- 
clusions from premises that are too narrow and inade- 
quate. The history of science is a record of the correc- 
tion of hasty generalizations by future discoveries, and 
leads to the final conviction that there are no laws of nat- 
ure which can lay claim to absolute universality. Since 
the time of Newton, the law of gravitation has been re- 
garded by many as strictly universal. But now we are 



Hamilton's "Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. i. p. 102. 
Whewell, "Novum Organon Renovatum," p. 7. 



CONSERVATION:— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 191 

told by Ilersehel that " our evidence of the existence of 
gravitation fails us beyond the region of the double stars, 
or leaves us at best only a presumption amounting to 
moral conviction in its favor." Furthermore, in regard 
to the luminiferous ether, he tells us that "we are freed 
from the necessity of any mental reference to the actual 
weight or specific gravity of the material, which in this 
case is the more necessary, as, though we suppose the 
ethereal molecules to possess inertia, we can not suppose 
them affected by the force of gravitation" "Beyond all 
doubt, the widest and most interesting prospect of future 
discovery ... is that distinction between gravitating and 
levitating matter, that positive and unrefutable demonstra- 
tion of the existence of a repulsive force . . . enormously 
more powerful than the attractive force of gravity." 1 

Until recently the presence of free oxygen as the neces- 
sary condition of life has been regarded as a universal 
biological law. " But the latest researches of Pasteur 
have shown that, so far from oxj T gen being essential to the 
life of the simplest living beings, there are certain forms 
of infusoria which not only pass their lives without oxy- 
gen, but are killed by its presence." 2 

Other illustrations might be adduced, but these are suffi- 
cient for our purpose. The truth is, there is not a phe- 
nomenon known to man that can properly be said to be 
the result of the action of one invariable and universal 
force, not even the falling of a stone to the earth ; for 
some force must have previously been exerted to raise the 
stone from the earth, which force is represented by en- 
ergy of position, or " potential energy." 3 And this poten- 

1 "Familiar Lectures on Science," pp. 218, 284, HO. 

2 " Physiological Anatomy," by Todd, Bowman, and Beale, p. 19 ; Nich- 
olson's "Biology," p. 14. 

3 Jevons, "Principles of Science," vol. ii. pp. 433, 434. 



192 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

tial energy is the exact numerical equivalent of the en- 
ergy of motion which it acquires in falling— -i. <?., the mass 
multiplied by the square of the velocity. Every event, 
every change in nature, is due to " some variable combina- 
tions of invariable forces." 1 Material causes are always 
complex. Every law of nature is liable to counteraction 
and modification by other laws, and the most fundamental 
fact of the universe is that material forces are adjusted, 
combined, and modified in endless modes in order to the 
fulfillment of purposes and ends. The phenomena of life 
present a vast series of such adjustments and modifica- 
tions. The mechanical and chemical forces are controlled 
and subordinated by the vital force, so that life has been 
defined as " a resistance to the physical forces of matter " 2 
—a resistance which Liebig regards as in a certain degree 
invincible. Living matter is the seat of energy, and so 
long as it is living, can overcome the primary law of the 
inertia of matter, and moves spontaneously. 3 Living mat- 
ter overcomes the attraction of gravitation, and resists, sus- 
pends, and modifies the action of chemical affinity. 4 It is 
in direct opposition to chemical affinity that organized be- 
ings exist. 

Thus the various forms of energy are mutually condi- 
tioned. The mechanical, chemical, and electrical energies 
are counteracted by the vital force. And all the forces 
and energies of nature are controlled and subordinated by 
a higher force which orders means to ends, and adapts 
structure to function, viz., an Intelligent Will. The con- 
viction finally becomes irresistible that nature is a system 

1 Argyll, "Keign of Law," p. 100. 

2 Laycock, "Mind and Brain," vol. i. p. 225. 

3 Beale, "Protoplasm," pp. 39, 42, 109. 

4 Beale, "Protoplasm," pp. 104, 117; Laycock, "Mind and Brain,'' 
vol. i. pp. 222, 224 ; Liebig, "Organic Chemistry," p. G9. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 193 

of things designed to be subject to Mind, and that a law 
of design is the highest law of the universe. 

It must now be obvious that we can reach no definite 
conclusion in regard to the question under discussion — 
the uniformity of nature — unless we have a clear and pre- 
cise conception of the meaning of the term "nature." 
The word is employed, even by men of science, in a very 
loose and ambiguous sense. At one time it is used to 
denote the totality of sensible phenomena ; at another, 
the conditions or causes of phenomena ; again, the re- 
lations of phenomena; and often, all these collective- 
ly. We must endeavor to extricate ourselves from this 
confusion. 

According to its derivation, nature (natiora — nascitur) 
means that which is born or produced — the becoming * 
that which has a beginning and an end ; that which has 
not the cause of its existence in itself, and the cause of 
which must be sought in something antecedent to and be- 
yond itself — that is, nature is the phenomenal. This the 
word itself expresses in the strongest manner. That which 
begins to be, as the necessary consequence of antecedent 
conditions, is natural. The co-existence, resemblance, and 
succession of phenomena constitute the order of nature ; 
and the uniformity of these relations among phenomena 
are the laws of nature. So much is clear from the stand- 
point of mere empirical science. Now if law is " the uni- 
formity of relations among phenomena," 1 then it is equally 
clear that the phrase " uniformity of natural law " is mean- 
ingless, for, by the definition, the uniformity itself is the 
law, and the expression is simply equivalent to " the uni- 
formity of the uniformity," which is absurd. Furthermore, 
if "nature" is the phenomenal — the becoming — then the 

1 Spencer, " First Principles, " p. 128. 

N 



194 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

word can not be properly employed to denote the causes 
of that becoming, unless by causes we understand ante- 
cedent conditions, which, as we shall presently see, are not 
real causes. Nature, or the sum-total of phenomena, is an 
effect — an effect which demands a cause. There can be no 
phenomena without change, no change without motion, no 
motion without force, no force without Spirit, for Spirit- 
force is the only force of which we have any knowledge 
or consciousness. A rational Will, and not a blind neces- 
sity, must stand at the fountain-head of being, and uni-< 
formity in nature must be the result of reason and choice. 
But suppose we are permitted to employ the term " nat- 
ure " to denote the essential properties of matter, and the 
various forms of energy, 1 potential and kinetic ; and sup- 
pose we admit that matter is indestructible, and that the 
amount of energy in the world is unchanged, the sum of 
the actual and potential energies being, a constant quan- 
tity ; still we are not entitled from these premises to infer 
the absolute uniformity in the succession of events — that is, 
the uniformity of the phenomenal. We have already seen 
that no phenomenon known to man is the result of a sin? 
gle property of matter or a single form of energy. " All 
issues in nature are the effects produced upon matter by 
the resultant of component forces." The phenomena of 
nature are the result of adjustments, combinations, and 
distributions of matter and of force in endless variety and 
complexity. Hence we have in nature the variable, the 
contingent, the particular, as well as the invariable, the 

1 By Energy we understand "the power of doing work," or overcoming 
resistance, which in nature is something perfectly intelligible and measura- 
ble, equivalent in all cases to the product of the mass into the square of the 
velocity. By Force we understand "that which originates motion." All 
the forms of Energy have therefore their origin in Force, and Force has its 
origin in the Will of the Deity. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO TEE WORLD. 1Q5 

uniform, and the general. This is admitted by Comte: 
" That which engenders this irregular variability of the 
effect is the great number of different agents determining 
at the same time the same phenomena ; and from which 
it results, in the most complicated phenomena, that there 
are no two cases precisely alike. We have no occasion, in 
order to find such complexity, to go to the phenomena of 
living beings. It presents itself in bodies without life, for 
example, in studying meteorological phenomena. . . . Their 
multiplicity renders the effects as irregularly variable as 
if every cause had not been subject to any precise condi- 
tion.^ J 

Thus we are led by various lines of thought to the same 
conclusion. It is certain that we can only learn what the 
uniformities (the laws) of nature are by experience, and. 
in order to determine whether all the successions of events 
have been and now are universally uniform, we must have 
a universal experience. If there have been deviations 
from general laws under peculiar conditions — if one form 
of energy has been counteracted and modified by another 
form of energy, or even by an intelligent Will, so as to 
give a particular result — experience ( = observation and 
testimony) must be just as adequate to attest the reality 
of that particular deviation as it is to attest the preva- 
lence of general laws. 2 We have no intuitive and neces- 
sary conviction of the uniformity of nature, and therefore 
we can not affirm in an d priori manner what is possible 
or impossible. Those scientists who adopt the maxim of 
Faraday, that in the investigation of new and peculiar 

1 Quoted from "Positive Philosophy," by Dr. McCosh, "Divine Govern- 
ment,*' p. 107. 

1 Science has been defined as the " knowledge of these deviations from the 
great laws of nature formularized in contingent or derivative laws." — Lay- 
cock, "Mind and Brain," vol. i. p. 221. 



196 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

phenomena " we must set out with, clear ideas of the pos- 
sible and the impossible," are doomed to move in a vicious 
circle. They can not be sure that a fact of experience is 
a real fact until they have ascertained the laws of nature 
in the case, and they can not ascertain what the laws of 
nature are until they have ascertained the facts. They 
must not profess to have learned any thing until they have 
ascertained that it is possible, and they can not decide that 
it is possible until they have learned every thing, because 
the single item of knowledge they are deficient in may be 
the very principle which warrants a belief in the possi- 
bility of the fact. The maxim is obviously absurd. In 
its theological bearings it is repudiated even by Professor 
Tyndall, the pupil and successor of Faraday at the Royal 
Institution. " You never hear the really philosophical de- 
fenders of the doctrine of uniformity speaking of impos- 
sibilities in nature. They never say . . . that it is impos- 
sible for the Builder of the universe to alter his work. 
Their business is not with the possible, but with the act- 
ual. 5 ' 1 

The hypothesis under discussion is further vitiated by 
the assumption that laws are causes adequate in them- 
selves to the production of all phenomena. So that now 
Creation by Law (Nomogeny) is the watchword of this 
school of thinkers. The men who have defined law as 
"the uniformity of relations among phenomena" — as "an 
observed order of facts " — now speak of laws as having in 
themselves a real efficiency ; as producing, regulating, and 
governing powers. Under this high-sounding phrase — 
" Creation by Law " — there is not only the artful conceal- 
ment of a difficulty, but there is also the interpolation of 
a positive error. The uniformities of natural phenomena 

1 ''Fragments of Science," p. 1G2. 



CONSERVATION— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 19 7 

are the causes of phenomena, or, in other words, the order 
of nature is its own cause, which is not only erroneous but 
Belf -contradictory. 

Here, again, we encounter the perplexity consequent on 
the use of ambiguous phraseology. The term "Law" is 
employed in an equivocal sense, as denoting, indifferently, 
property and relation, condition and cause, antecedent and 
consequence. In such an atmosphere of verbal haze it is 
impossible to see clearly or think correctly. We must feel 
our way toward a purer light, and find a less wavering 
stand-point. 

The primary and generic conception of law is " the au- 
thoritative expression of WHIP This is the most natural, 
the most obvious, and the most legitimate conception. 
The true notion of Will is the synthesis of Reason and 
Power. Power exerted in the forms of reason is self-con- 
sciousness. Reason manifested in the forms of power is 
self-determination. Self-consciousness and self-determi- 
nation are the two elements of personality. More explic- 
itly, we may therefore define law as " the idea of the Rea- 
son enforced by Power? The subjects of legislation are : 

1. The actions of Free Beings. To ascertain the laws in 
this case is to answer the question, What ought to be done ? 

2. The processes of Thought. To ascertain the laws 
in this case is to answer the questions, Why do we judge 
or affirm this or that ? and, What are the grounds and cri- 
teria of certitude? 

3. The facts or events of Nature. To ascertain the 
laws in this case is to answer the questions, What are the 
facts in their observed order ? How or from what causes 
do they arise ? Why or for what end do they exist ? 

It is under the last division that we encounter the sec- 
ondary and symbolical senses in which the term law has 



198 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

come to be used by scientific men, which have well-nigh 
supplanted the primary and only legitimate signification. 

That which lies nearest to sense — the phenomena of 
nature — first engages the awakening intellect. If the at- 
tention is confined solely to the phenomena of nature, the 
simple question propounded is, What is the observed or- 
der of the facts? At this stage science can be no more 
than a classification of phenomena according to their rela- 
tions of co-existence, resemblance, and succession, and law 
must be defined as " the uniformity of relations among 
phenomena? 1 Here the term is taken objectively ', and 
the facts are simply conceived as perceived by the senses. 

But the human mind can never rest in the bare knowl- 
edge of phenomena. The reason intuitively recognizes 
the uniformities of nature as the suggestive signs of prop- 
erties or powers which are not perceptible to sense, and 
the question arises, How — that is, from what adjustment 
of antecedent conditions and physical agencies — does the 
order of nature arise? And now the term law comes 
to indicate more than an observed order of facts; it de- 
notes an order resulting from the coincidence of some 
permanent properties, qualities, or forces which are con- 
ceived as lying back of the phenomena, and pushing them 
into the objective field. Accordingly, laws are now de- 
fined as "the necessary relations which spring from the 
[inner] nature of things? 2 Here the phrase is taken 
subjectively, as the expression of a mental conception, and 
not of a sense perception. " It has relation to us as un- 
derstanding, rather than to the materials of which the 
universe consists as obeying certain rules." 3 

1 Spencer, "First Principles," p. 128. 

2 Montesquieu, " Spirit of Laws," bk. i. ch. i. 

3 Herschel, "Natural Philosophy," § 27. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO TEE WORLD. 199 

Finally, the human mind approaches the question — 
Why have these physical agencies been so collocated or 
adjusted? What relation does this adjustment bear to 
purpose, intention, or end? Law is now the reason or 
end for which an orderly arrangement exists. Here the 
phrase is taken ideally or rationally as a revelation of the 
intuitive reason, in the light of which the phenomena of 
nature find their only satisfactory interpretation. 

By this route we are led back to the primary and uni- 
versal conception of law as " the idea of the Reason en- 
forced by Power" All government, human or Divine, is 
the enforcement of ideas by authority, and " Natural Law" 
is the actualization of the Divine idea by the Divine ef- 
ficiency.' As Bansen remarks, "Law is the supreme rule 
of the universe, and this law is Intellect, is Reason, wheth- 
er Tiewed in the formation of a planetary system or the 
organization of a worm." 

Laws and ideas are thus correlated. Viewed in re- 
spect to the reason as conceiving, originating, and project- 
ing, we speak of the idea. Viewed in respect to the 
sphere of determinate movement and action in which ideas 
are realized and actualized, we speak of law. Hence 
Plato often calls ideas laws; and Lord Bacon, the British 
Plato, describes the laws of the material world as ideas : 
" Quod in naturd naturatd lex, in naturd naturante idea 
dicitur" 

It is obvious, then, that laws are not attributes of mat- 
ter, but of intelligence. It is equally obvious that laws 
are not efficient causes, and can not execute themselves. 
They are the ideas and purposes of reason, and the rules 
or methods according to which the ideas are actualized. 
Law, therefore, presupposes a Lawgiver and an Executive. 
Law without a lawgiver is the merest abstraction, and 



£>00 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

law without an agent to realize and execute it is, in fact, 
not a law, but an idea. To maintain that the universe is 
governed by laws, without ascending to the superior rea- 
son and source of these laws— to talk of laws, and yet not 
to recognize that every law implies a legislator, and an ex- 
ecutor to put it in force — is to hypostatize laws, to make 
beings of them, and to substitute mythical and fabulous 
divinities in the place of the one living and true God, the 
source of all power and all law. 

Few men of recent times can claim a larger acquaint- 
ance with the history and the philosophy of the Inductive 
Sciences than the late Professor Whewell, and he may be 
fairly regarded as expressing the doctrine of the best sci- 
entists. " A law supposes an agent and a power : for it 
is a mode according to which the power acts. Without 
the presence of such an agent, of such a power, conscious 
of the relations on which the law depends, producing the 
effects which the law prescribes, the law can have no effi- 
ciency, no existence. Hence we infer that the intelligence 
by which the law is ordained, the power by which it is 
put in action, must be present in all places where the ef- 
fects of the law occur ; that thus the knowledge and 
agency of the Divine Being pervade every portion of the 
universe, producing all action and passion, all permanence 
and change. The laws of nature are the laws which He 
in his wisdom prescribes to his own acts ; his universal 
presence is the necessary condition of any course of events, 
his universal agency the only origin of any efficient force." l 

We grant that the term law may, by metonymy, be em- 
ployed to designate "the uniformity of relations among 
phenomena," but then it must not be forgotten that here 
the effect is put for the cause, the consequence of law for 

1 "Astronomy and Physics," p. 224. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 201 

the law itself. It may be that this is the only conception 
of law which is legitimate within the sphere of strictly 
physical science, and to limit the scientists solely to the 
knowledge of phenomena and their relations would simply 
be to take them at their word. The inquiry concerning 
Causes and First Principles must tlien, by common con- 
sent, be surrendered to pure metaphysics and theology. 
Bat if, after this truce, the scientist still persists in speak- 
ing of laws as efficient causes, and claiming for them " an 
eternal and necessary uniformity," thus virtually denying 
the liberty and personality of God, and the possibility of 
Creation and Providence, the Christian Theist must be 
permitted in the name of polemic fairness and logical con- 
sistency to protest. 



202 THE TEEISTIC CONCEPTION OF TEE WORLD. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CONSERVATION. — THE RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 
(Continued,*) 

Of the various hypotheses which seek to dispense with 
the immediate agency of God, and to explain the conser- 
vation of the world by " secondary " or natural agencies, 
the second is that of active Force communicated to matter 
at its creation. This force being transformable, and at 
the same time indestructible, is regarded as adequate to 
the conservation of the universe. 

This hypothesis must not be confounded with the Dy- 
namical theory of matter propounded by Leibnitz, and 
more fully elaborated by Boscovich, which regards matter 
as a mere phenomenon or function of force ; on the con- 
trary, it conceives of matter as a distinct entity moving 
under the action of a primary impulse communicated by 
"the Creator's fiat at the beginning." This hypothesis 
in its fundamental conception and its further elaboration 
is purely mechanical. It represents the universe as a 
machine first set in motion by the Deity, and conserved 
by the actions and reactions of its several parts. All sub- 
sequent motions, changes, and configurations are the pro- 
longed results of the original impulse, without any further 
direct action or control on the part of the Creator. 

A more precise and accurate statement would require 
that the term " Energy " should be substituted for " Force." 
In the language of modern physics, Force is " that which 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 203 

originates or tends to originate motion or change," and 
" is wholly expended in the action it produces." ' All en- 
ergy has its origin in force, but force can not pass into 
energy except under conditions in which it is at liberty to 
act. For instance, the force of gravity produces the en- 
ergy of motion of a falling body, but gravity can not pro- 
duce motion unless there is space through which the body 
can fall. Energy, therefore, is defined as " the power of 
doing work." 2 The work done is the resistance overcome, 
and in overcoming resistance the energy is transformed, 
but not annihilated. In every case in which energy is 
lost by resistance, heat is generated ; and we learn from 
Joule's investigations that the quantity of heat generated 
is a perfectly definite equivalent for the energy lost. It 
is therefore claimed that the total quantity of energy in the 
universe is constant, and that the material system is dy- 
namically conservative. The universe is a self-acting and 
self-sustained machine, and perpetual motion is a neces- 
sary consequence. 

A little reflection, however, ought to convince any one 
that this conception of the universe — as a machine which 
is kept in perpetual motion by the reciprocal action of its 
parts — is a false analogy. And its fallacy is apparent 
from this, that the moving force of every machine is not 
inherent in the machine, but some natural primary force 
distinct from the machine, such as gravity, or the primary 
atomic forces of attraction and repulsion; and consequent- 
ly the very idea of mechanism assumes the existence of 
those primary forces of which it is the professed object 
of a mechanical theory of the universe to give an explana- 
tion. A machine "can no more create energy than it can 

1 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 1G4; Mayer, "Corre- 
lation and Conservation of Forces, " p. 335. 2 Stewart's ' ' Physics, : ' p. 103. 



204 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

create matter;" its sole function is "to transform energy 
into a kind most convenient for us." * " We may with the 
greatest ease convert mechanical work into heat, but we 
can not by any means convert all the energy of heat back 
again into mechanical work. In the steam-engine we do 
what can be done in this way, but it is a very small por- 
tion of the whole energy of the heat that is convertible 
into work, for a large portion is dissipated, and will con- 
tinue to be dissipated however perfect our engine may be- 
come. Let the greatest care be taken in the construction 
anci working of a steam-engine, yet we shall not succeed 
in converting one fourth of the whole energy of the heat 
of the coals into mechanical work." 2 It is impossible to 
construct a machine that can do work without parting 
with energy ; and when the energy is all parted with, any 
machine whatever must necessarily cease to do any more 
work unless a fresh supply of energy be brought in from 
without. It is impossible to make a water-mill work with- 
out a constantly renewed supply of water, or to make a 
steam-engine work without a constantly renewed supply 
of fuel. " Every one who understands mechanics knows 
that any such inexhaustible supply of energy is impossible 
by means of merely mechanical arrangements ; but it is 
equally true, though not perhaps equally so evident, that 
it is impossible by means of any arrangement of thermal, 
electric, or chemical forces." 3 

But we are told that modern science has proved that 
the law of the Conservation of Energy is an absolute law 
of the universe, and that though man can not construct a 
machine which will realize the dream of perpetual mo- 
tion, the material universe is in reality such a machine. 

1 Stewart's "Physics," pp. 114, 353. 2 Stewart's "Physics," p. 356. 
3 Murphy, "Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 22. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 205 

It becomes us to speak with some degree of diffidence in 
regard to a question which lies outside of our special de- 
partment of study. Nevertheless we must confess that 
we have a growing suspicion of all so-called "absolute 
laws" in the domain of physical nature. And we are 
confirmed in this mistrust by the fact that physicists them- 
selves are not agreed in regarding this law of conserva- 
tion of energy as universally true. " That the amount of 
energy in the world is unchangeable, the sum of the actual 
or kinetic and potential energies being a constant quan- 
tity, has been by some writers overstrained. It may "be 
taken as a postulate, and is probably true, but it is a prop- 
osition equally incapable of proof and of disproof." 3 
" This principle," says Sir J. Herschel, " so far as it rests 
upon any scientific basis as a legitimate conclusion from 
dynamical laws, is no other than the well-known dynam- 
ical theorem of the conservation of vis viva (or of ' en- 
ergy,' as some prefer to call it), supplemented to save the 
truth of its verbal enunciation by the introduction of 
what is called c potential energy,' a phrase which I can 
not help regarding as unfortunate, inasmuch as it goes to 
substitute a truism for the announcement of a dynamical 
fact. No such conservation, in the sense of an identity of 
total amount of vis viva at all times and in all circum- 
stances, in fact, exists. So far as a system is maintained 
by the mutual actions and reactions of its constituent ele- 
ments at a distance (i. e., by force), vis viva may tempo- 
rarily disappear, and be subsequently reproduced between 
certain limits. Collision, indeed, between its ultimate par- 
ticles or atoms, regarded as absolutely rigid, and therefore 
inelastic (for that which can not change its figure can 
have no resilience), can not take place without producing 

1 Professor Charles Brooke, in Nature, vol. vi. p. 125. 



206 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

a permanent destruction of it, which there exists no means 
of repairing. ... If , indeed, we conld be assured d priori 
that the system [of the universe] is one of simple or com- 
pound periodicity, in which a certain lapse of time will 
restore every molecule to identically the same relative sit- 
uation with respect to all the rest, we should then be sure 
that in the nature of things there would take place, so to 
speak, a winding up from a lower to a higher state of po- 
tential energy, to be subsequently exchanged for newly cre- 
ated vis viva. But, as we can have no such a priori assur- 
ance, can only assume such restoration to be possible, and 
can see no means of effecting it, if possible, otherwise than 
by foresight and prearrangement ; the one equally with the 
other is an unknown function, variable within unknown 
limits, and susceptible of fluctuation to an unknown ex- 
tent ; nor can we have any, the smallest, right to assert that 
what is expended in one form is necessarily laid up for 
further use in the other. It would be very difficult, I ap- 
prehend, to show whether, in the winding up of a clock or 
the building of a pyramid, taking into consideration all 
the various modes in which vis viva disappears and re- 
appears in the expenditure of muscular power, the evo- 
lution of animal heat, the consumption of the materials 
of our tissues, the propagation of vibratory motions, and 
a thousand other modes of transfer, the total vis viva 
of this our planet is increased or diminished. That it 
should remain absolutely unchanged during the process is 
in the last degree inconceivable. The amount of vis viva 
latent in the form of heat or molecular motion in the sun 
and planets in our immediate system may bear, and prob- 
ably does bear, a by no means inappreciable ratio to that 
more distinctly patent in the form of bodily motion in the 
periodic circulation of the planets round the sun, and the 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 207 

sun and planets round their axes. The latter amount fluc- 
tuates to and fro according to laws easily calculable, but 
the former we have no means whatever of computing, and 
to what extent, or within what limits, it may be variable, 
we are altogether ignorant" 1 

The two dynamical laws of Conservation of Energy and 
Transformation of Energy can not therefore be regarded 
as universal and absolute laws; they are particular and 
derivative laws subject to limitations which are supplied 
by the third dynamical law — the Dissipation of Energy. 
The law of the conservation of energy simply asserts 
" that the whole amount of energy in the universe, or in 
any limited system which does not receive energy from 
without, or part with it to external matter, is invariable ;" 
in other words, that every material system subject to no 
other forces than actions and reactions between its parts 
is a dynamically conservative system. But Sir William 
Thomson has shown that " in nature this hypothetical con- 
dition is apparently violated in all circumstances of mo- 
tion. A material system can never be brought through 
any returning cycle of motion without spending more 
work against the mutual forces of its parts than is gained 
from these forces, because no relative motion can take 
place without meeting with frictional or other forms of 
resistance." 2 "There can be but one ultimate result for 
such a system as that of the sun and planets, if continuing 
long enough under existing laws, and not disturbed by 
meeting with other moving masses in space. That result 
is the falling together of all into one mass, which, although 
rotating for a time, must in the end come to rest relative- 
ly to the surrounding medium" 3 

1 "Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects," pp. 469-472. 

2 "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. pp. 190, 191. 3 Ibid. p. 194. 



208 TIIE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The law of the transformation of energy is " the enun- 
ciation of the empirical fact that in general any one form 
of energy may by suitable processes be transformed, wholly 
or in part, to an equivalent amount in any other given 
form." This law, however, is subject to limitations which 
are supplied by the dissipation of energy. "No known 
natural process is exactly reversible, and whenever an at- 
tempt is made to transform and retransform energy by an 
imperfect process, part of the energy is necessarily trans- 
formed into heat and dissipated, so as to be incapable of 
further useful transformation. It therefore follows that, 
as energy is constantly in a state of transformation, there 
is a constant degradation of energy to the final unavaila- 
ble form of uniformly diffused heat, and that will go on 
until the whole energy of the universe has taken this final 
form." * No mechanical work can be done by heat in a 
state of equilibrium; as a dynamical agent it is dead. 
" Thus the inexorable laws of mechanics indicate that the 
store of force in our planetary system, which can only suf- 
fer loss and not gain, must be finally exhausted." 2 

So far, then, as the conservation of energy has any 
scientific meaning, it is inadequate to account for the or- 
igin or explain the continuance of the existing order of 
nature. It is true we may conceive that every atom of 
matter was endowed at the Creation with a certain store 
of potential energy — "the potential energy of gravita- 
tion" 3 — which it has ever since given out; but as every 
motion which has resulted from its action has been attend- 
ed with the expenditure of a certain amount of the orig- 
inal endowment, it must have been continually undergoing 

1 North British Review, vol. xl. pp. 182, 183. 

2 Helmholtz, " Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 245. 

3 This is the hypothesis of Helmholtz, Mayer, and Thomson. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 209 

a diminution. There is, says Professor Norton, no escap- 
ing this conclusion but by taking the ground that the pri- 
mary atomic forces (as gravitation, and the atomic repulsion 
and attraction by which atoms are aggregated into bodies 
of sensible magnitude) are correlated with the living forces 
(or various forms of energy) which are involved in the 
motions that have resulted from the previous operation of 
the primary atomic forces. "But," he says, "no evidence 
has been obtained of any such correlation" The pri- 
mary force of attraction (if it be regarded as a primary 
force) may be the cause of motion in bodies which are sep- 
arated in space, and part of that energy of motion may be 
transformed into the energy of heat or light or electrici- 
ty, but the primary force of attraction is not transformed. 
Energy is convertible into other forms of energy, but heat, 
light, and electricity are not transformable into primary 
force. The correlation of force and energy is therefore a 
scientific heresy. 1 

Modern physicists are agreed that visible motion, heat, 
electricity, magnetism, and radiance (radiant light and 
heat) are forms of actual energy which are correlated and 
capable of mutual conversion. Any one form may, by 
suitable processes, be transformed, wholly or in part, to an 
equivalent amount of any other form of energy. So much 
is generally accepted by scientific men. 

But in regard to the primary force or forces in which 
these forms of energy have their origin, there is not the 
same agreement among physicists. Some regard gravita- 
tion, cohesion, and chemical affinity as the three primary 
forces of nature ; while others suggest that the last two 
are related with and probably derived from the first. 

1 Tyndall, "Fragments of Science," p. 31 ; Murphy, "Habit and Intelli- 
gence," vol. i. p. 23. 





210 THE T HEIST I C CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

There is also a respectable school of physicists who teach 
that atomic attractions and repulsions are the universal 
cosmic forces which originate all molecular and mechan- 
ical motions. Then, again, each of these forms of force 
have their special advocates. On the one side it is af- 
firmed, as an important generalization, that all primary 
force is attractive • " there is no such thing in nature as 
a primary repulsive force." 1 Universal attraction is the 
one world-forming and world-conserving energy. On the 
other side it is contended that gravitation is not a primary, 
but a secondary and derivative force, and that the grand 
primal force is a universal force of repulsion! 2 

It is beyond our province to discuss the merits of these 
conflicting theories. Our position is that no purely phys- 
ical hypothesis is adequate to account for the conserva- 
tion of the universe, and therefore it is of little conse- 
quence to our argument which of the above theories may 
find most favor with scientific men. The tendency of 
modern scientific thought is toward the conception of " one 
primordial form of matter, and but one primary form of 
force," as the simplest basis upon which a physical theory 
of inanimate nature can be erected. The ultimate nature 
of fhis one primary force is a question for pure meta- 
physics. From the stand-point of physical science it can 
only be thought "as a pull or a push in a straight line." 3 
Universal attraction or universal repulsion must be the 
ultimate dynamical conception for the pure physicist. 

1. Let us consider the first hypothesis. It is claimed 
that gravitation, or universal attraction, is the great con- 



1 Murphy, " Habit and Intelligence," vol. i. p. 43. 

2 Professor Norton, "On Molecular Physics;" American Journal of Sci- 
ence and Arts, vol. iii. 3d Series, pp. 329-331. 

3 Tyndall, " Fragments of Science," p. 76. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 211 

serving and sustaining principle of the universe. A stone 
falls to the earth, a round body rolls along a plane in- 
clined toward the horizon ; a liquid mass, as a brook or a 
large river, flows on the sloping surface which forms its 
bed. All these phenomena are the varied manifestation 
of a universal tendency in all bodies to fall one toward the 
other. In virtue of this tendency the great orbs which 
hang suspended in space gravitate toward one another ; 
the moon and the earth fall toward each other, and they 
both gravitate toward the sun. All the planets of our 
solar system continually act one on the other, and on the 
immense sphere which shines at their common focus. By 
its enormous mass, the sun keeps all of them in their or- 
bits. If we ask why one hody falls toward another which 
is more than ninety millions of miles off, in preference to 
moving in anv other direction, the answer given is that, 
" Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every 
other particle with a force whose direction is that of the 
line joining the two, and whose magnitude is directly as 
the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of 
their distance from each other." This force of attraction 
is the universal bond which holds the universe together, 
and sustains its physical life. 

To the superficial thinker, the language of the New- 
tonian philosophy appears to sanction the materialistic no- 
tion that gravitation and attraction are active powers es- 
sential to and inherent in matter. Such, however, was by 
no means the doctrine of JSTewton, and he was careful to 
guard his readers against any such misapprehension of his 
meaning. " The words attraction, repulsion, or tendencies 
of whatever kind toward a centre, I use indifferently and 
without distinction for each other, considering these forces 
not physically but metaphysically. Wherefore let not the 



212 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

reader suppose that by words of this kind I any where 
mean a species or mode of action, or cause, or physical 
reason; or that I really and in a physical sense assign 
forces to centres (which are only mathematical points), 
even though I may say that centres attract, or that forces 
belong to centres." 1 

The history of scientific opinion on the point before ns 
furnishes a striking illustration of the manner in which 
language reacts on the ideas which it is intended to ex- 
press, and thus men fall into the habit of talking nonsense 
without knowing it. The conception of atoms having the 
property of exerting various forces across a void space 
seemed to follow as a matter of course from the discovery 
of the law of gravitation, and from the language in which 
it is expressed. After Newton a school arose which taught 
that atoms have the property of exerting force at a dis- 
tance, and that this property must be inherent in the 
atoms, just as Lucretius taught that hardness and elasticity 
were original indefeasible properties of the primordial el- 
ements, the "semina rerum," or seeds of things. But 
Newton did not teach this ; he stated a fact, but did not 
devise an hypothesis ; he attempted no explanation of the 
law of gravitation. 

" The law of gravitation considered as a result is beau- 
tifully simple; in a few words it expresses a fact from 
which most numerous and complex results may be de- 
duced by mere reasoning — results found invariably to agree 
with the records of observation; but this same law of 
gravitation looked upon as an axiom or first principle is 
so astonishingly far removed from all ordinary experience 
as to be almost incredible. What ! every particle in the 
whole universe is actively attracting every other particle 

1 "Principia," Def. viii. p. 8. 



CONSERVATION*— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 213 

[that is, every particle in the universe with the same 
force, without any expenditure of force], through void, 
without the aid of any communication by means of mat- 
ter, or otherwise — each particle, unchecked by distance, un- 
impeded by obstacles, throws this miraculous influence to 
infinite distance without the employment of any means! 1 
No particle interferes with its neighbor, but all these won- 
derful influences are co-existent in every point in space ! 
The result is apparent at each particle, but the condition 
of intermediate space is exactly the same as though no 
such influence were being transmitted across it ! Earth 
attracts Sirius across space, and yet the space between is- 
as if neither Earth nor Sirius existed ! Can these things 
be ? We think not ; and Newton himself did not affirm 
this." 2 On the contrary, he earnestly rejects any such hy- 
pothesis. " It is inconceivable that inanimate brute mat- 
ter should, without the mediation of something else which 
is not material, operate upon and affect other matter with- 
out mutual contact, as it must do if gravitation, in the 
sense of Epicurus, be essential to and inherent in matter. 
. . . That gravitation should be innate, inherent, and essen- 
tial to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a 
distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of any 
thing else, by and through which their action and force 
may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great 
an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosoph- 
ical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall 
into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting con- 
stantly according to certain laws." 3 

1 ; ' Doe? every grain of salt and pepper in a million salt-cellars and pepper- 
casters individually and separately pull and actually move the sun and fixed 
stars?" — De Morgan. 

2 North British Review, vol. xlviii. March, 1868, p. 125. 

3 Third Letter to Bentley. 



214 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The ancient axiom that " Matter can not act where it is 
not. any more than when it is not," was universally be- 
lieved till Newton's time, and Newton himself regarded 
it as a self-evident truth. Some of his disciples asserted 
that gravitation must be considered as an essential prop- 
erty of matter, and they were under the necessity of as- 
suming that atoms can exert a force upon one another 
across a void. This to Leibnitz was either miraculous or 
absurd; and in modern times the doctrine is rejected by 
the first physicists — by Faraday, Helmholtz, Thomson, 
Tait, and Maxwell. * Sir William Thomson, the Newton 
of modern physics, says emphatically, "I have no faitli 
whatever in attractions and repulsions acting at a dis- 
tance between centres of force according to various laws." 2 
And Clerk Maxwell, in his lecture on "Action at a Dis- 
tance," 3 explains how Faraday, by his discovery of mag- 
netic rotation of polarized light, and by his showing how 
lines of force arise in media, "rudely shook the theory of 
attraction and repulsion at a distance across a void." 

If, now, " direct action at a distance " is rejected by sci- 
entific men as inconceivable and absurd, how can it be 
that the sxmjpulls the earth toward it, and holds the plan- 
ets in their orbits? The verbal statement of the law of 
gravitation is no answer to this question. It expresses a 
fact, but it does not assign a cause. Gravitation is a phe- 
nomenon which demands an explanation, and some of the 
first scientists of the day are engaged in devising a theory 
which shall afford a rational answer to the question, What 
is the cause of gravity ? 4 

1 Nature, vol. iii. p. 51 ; vol. ii. p. 422. 2 Nature, vol. i. p. 561. 

3 Delivered at the Royal Institution, and reported in Nature, vol. vii. Nos. 
174, 175. 

4 North British Review, vol. xlviii. March, 18G8 ; " Correlation and Con- 
servation of Forces," p. 368; Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts, vol. xlix. p. 24. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 215 

The first and most fundamental presupposition for any 
physical hypothesis which seeks to explain the action of 
gravitation is that some medium of communication exists. 
This is suggested by every physical analogy. Sound is 
communicated through a medium. The influence which 
is exerted at a distance by heat, light, electricity, and mag- 
netism is effected through media. The most plausible 
suggestion yet made is that " a single omnipresent fluid, 
ether, fills the universe," which by various forms or modes 
of motion transmits light, radiant heat, magnetism, and 
electricity. 1 May not gravitation, it is asked, be transmit- 
ted by the same fluid ? may it not consist of or result from 
actual recurring impulses propagated in ethereal waves ? 

The hypothesis that gravitation is transmitted through 
the same medium as light, or indeed through anv medium, 
is encumbered with serious if not insuperable difficulties. 
All transmission of whatever kind — of a letter by the post, 
a gunshot, a sound, a wave of light, an electro-magnetic 
disturbance — occupies time. It has a velocity — sometimes 
a very great one, as in the case of light ; still it is a meas- 
urable velocity. But, according to Herschel, the pull 
which the sun exerts on the earth is delivered instanta- 
neously. Were it not so there would be "a continually 
progressive increase of the major axis of the earth's orbit, 
and therefore of the length of the year." 2 Surely it must 
be obvious to every one that the instantaneous transmis- 
sion of the sun's attractive force to the planet Neptune, 
three thousand millions of miles distant, through a phys- 
ical medium like the ether, would be as great a miracle 
as action at a distance through a perfect void. But the 
advocates of this hypothesis have not thereby escaped the 

1 North British Review, vol. xlviii. p. 127 ; Nature, vol. vii. p. 343. 
3 "Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 90. 



216 THE TIIEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

difficulties of action at a distance. The majority of phys- 
icists regard the luminiferous ether as consisting of " dis- 
crete particles " — " elementary molecules of inconceivable 
minuteness and tenuity." These ultimate particles or 
atoms of highly attenuated matter must have some magni- 
tude, some extension, however inconceivably minute. If 
extended, they must have some form, and must occupy 
separate positions in space. If they are capable of motions 
— modulatory, rotatory, or spiral motions — they can not be 
in mutual contact. Conceive, then, two such atoms, and 
draw around each an imaginary circle. Let these circles 
touch at the middle point between the two, and ask your- 
self the question, What exists there ? On the hypothesis 
under consideration you are bound to answer pure, empty 
space — that is, pure nothing. " But if there is no matter be- 
tween the atoms, then all their actions, one upon the other, 
must be exerted across a void — that is, through a me- 
dium of nothingness:" in other words, through no medium 
at all. Now the size of the interval makes no difference 
in the argument. " Whether that interval be the 92-bill- 
ionth of an inch, or the 92 millions of miles or there- 
abouts between the earth and the sun, it is still action at 
a distance, and no escape." l 

The physicist who regards the ether as consisting of 
discrete particles not in bodily or actual contact, and at the 
same time finds himself logically compelled to reject this 
" mystical action at a distance," has no alternative but to 
accept the doctrine of Newton that the action of one par- 
ticle of matter upon another is mediated by an agent 
which is not material. " If it be true that the conception 
of force as the originator of motion in matter without 
bodily contact ... is essential to the right interpretation 

1 Picton, "Mystery of Matter," p. 49. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 217 

of phenomena ; and if it be equally true, on the other hand, 
that its exertion makes itself manifest to our personal con- 
sciousness by that peculiar sensation of effort which is not 
without its analogue in purely intellectual acts of the 
mind, it [i. e., force] comes not unnaturally to be regarded 
as affording a point of contact, a connecting link between 
these two great departments of being — between mind and 
matter — the one as the originator, the other as the recip- 
ient of force." 1 

There are distinguished physicists — as Helmholtz, Thom- 
son, Challis, and Maxwell — who seek to escape the diffi- 
culties of action at a distance by the assumption that the 
ether is absolutely continuous (and therefore does not con- 
sist of atoms) — a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible, 
frictionless fluid which fills the universe. This funda- 
mental presupposition as the basis of a physical theory 
of the universe necessitates the further assumption that 
"motion is the very essence of what has teen hitherto 
called matter." 2 All quantitative and qualitative phe- 
nomena, all statical and dynamical phenomena, are due 
solely to varied modes of motion in the primordial fluid. 
" By various motions of the nature of eddies [ring-vorti- 
ces], the qualities of matter — cohesion, elasticity, hardness, 
weight, mass, or other universal properties of matter — are 
given to small jjortions of the fluid which constitute the 
chemical atom., and these, by modifications in their com- 
binations, form, and motion, produce the accidental phe- 
nomena of gross matter. . . . On this view, gross matter 
would be merely an assemblage of parts of the medium 
moving in a peculiar way, groups of ring-vortices having 

1 Herschel, "Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 467. 

2 Sir William Thomson, "Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism," p. 
419. 



218 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

inertia. . . . The primary fluid by other motions transmits 
light, radiant heat, magnetism, and gravitation" x 

It may be regarded as an act of presumption in an ob- 
scure critic to offer an opinion on the theories of these 
great masters in science. We venture, however, to sug- 
gest that most men will find a difficulty in conceiving how 
space absolutely full of matter can be made to contain 
more, or how a truly continuous substance can be capable 
of condensation. The most tenuous ether, if it be abso- 
lutely continuous, occupies the whole of the space in which 
it lies — that is, there is no point of the space which is not 
occupied by a point of matter. 2 But the hardest iron can 
do no more than this, and, therefore, on this hypothesis it 
seems impossible to account for its greater density. It is 
suggested that if molecules are mere assemblages of parts 
of the ether moving in a peculiar way, then greater den- 
sity may be due to a modification in the motion of mole- 
cules, and not merely to the greater frequency of the eddy- 
ing molecules in a given space. But how can a truly con- 
tinuous substance h&ve j?a?'ts, and how can relative motion 
occur in an absolute plenum ? The very notion of par- 
ticles is quite inconsistent with the continuity of matter ; 
and in a universe absolutely full no motion whatever would 
be possible. We are told that Sir William Thomson and 
Professor Tait find no difficulty in all these, to our minds, 
contradictory conceptions, and therefore we must conclude 



1 North British Revieiv, vol. xlviii. p. 127. 

2 We do not by any means assert that two substances can not occupy the 
same point in space at the same moment in time. We accept the Hegelian 
maxim that "two substances may occupy the same point in space at the 
same time provided their qualities are essentially different." If the quali- 
ties of the ether are essentially different from gross matter, then to call ether 
" matter " is to confound and mislead the mind. May not ether be a " ter- 
tium quid" between matter and mind? 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 219 

that our intellect is not properly " focussed so as to give 
definition without prenumbral haze." 

Granting, then, the absolute continuity of all matter, 
and the possibility of motion in an absolute plenum, the 
question which concerns us most in this essay is, How is 
motion generated and sustained? One of the greatest 
lights of this new school tells us that "all we can affirm 
of matter is that it is the recipient of impulse and of en- 
ergy." 1 They no longer regard the atom "as a mystic 
point endowed with inertia and the attribute of attracting 
and repelling other such centres with forces depending on 
the intervening distances." 2 They have " no faith what- 
ever in attractions and repulsions acting at a distance be- 
tween centres of force." 3 Force, then, is not regarded by 
these leading physicists as an inherent attribute of matter. 
The primary fluid, originally inert and motionless, must 
have been set in motion by some force, by some agency 
external to and distinct from itself. An " original impe- 
tus "from without, according to Maxwell, 4 or a "press- 
ure " of the universal ether " from somewhere outside the 
world of stars," according to Challis, 5 must be the source 
of all motion and all forms of energy in the universe. 

It is a fundamental principle of dynamics that "force 
is wholly expended in the action it produces," 6 therefore, 
if all the forms of energy in the universe are the result 
of pressure, that pressure must be continuous ; if they are 
the result of impulses, these impulses must be incessantly 
renewed, and must recur with immeasurable rapidity. On 
either supposition, "the universe is not even temporarily 

1 Prof. Clerk Maxwell, in Nature, vol. ii. p. 421. 

2 Sir William Thomson, in Nature, vol. iv. p. 266. 

3 Sir W. Thomson, in Nature, vol. i. p. 551. 4 Nature, vol. ii. p. 421. 

5 Philosoj>liical Magazine, 1868. 

6 Thomson and Tait, "Natural Philosophy," vol. i. p. 164. 



220 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

automatic, but must be fed from moment to moment by 
an agency external to itself," and " the preservation of the 
universe is effected only by the unceasing expenditure of 
enormous quantities of work;" 1 that is, it is ceaselessly 
sustained by Divine Omnipotence — "He upholdeth all 
things by the word of his power." 

So much with respect to the first form of this hypothesis 
which regards atomic attraction as the sole world-forming 
and world-conserving force. We turn now to that form of 
the hypothesis which considers atomic repulsion as the 
grand primal force in which all the other physical forces, 
even gravitation itself, have their origin. 

This view is presented by Professor W. A. Norton, in 
his articles " On Cosmical and Molecular Physics " in the 
American Journal of Science and Arts. His theory rests 
essentially upon the following principles : 

1. The doctrine of inertia applied to all matter. 

2. The existence of a single primary force of repulsion 
exerted by every atom upon every other atom. 

3. The existence of but one primary form of elementary 
matter, viz., the universal or luminif erous ether ; the atoms, 
so called, of ordinary matter, and of the electric ether be- 
ing but different masses of condensed luminif erous ether. 

4. The doctrine of the interception of force by matter. 
This is a necessary consequence of the fact that a certain 
portion of the propagated force is instantly expended in 
imparting motion to the molecules or atoms which it en- 
counters, and is therefore abstracted from this force. 

5. The primary force of repulsion is made up of im- 
pulses recurring with an immeasurable rapidity. This 
is no new hypothesis. In all treatises on Mechanics, grav- 

1 Nature, vol. viii. p. 280; also Challis, "Principles of Mathematics and 
Physics," pp. 685-687. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD, 221 

ity and all incessant forces are conceived to consist of 
an indefinitely great number of impulses taking effect in 
a finite interval of time. 1 "The ever-recurring pulses of 
the primary cosmical force, emanating from all the atoms 
of the one primary form of matter, are directly consumed 
in communicating opposite movements, or virtual move- 
ments, to every atom in the universe. It is, as I conceive, 
because in the existing condition of things the distribu- 
tion of matter is unequal in different directions round a 
point, and therefore the partial interception of the impulses 
of the cosmical force along the different lines of direc- 
tion is unequal, that an effective gravitating force exists. 2 
The entire amount of the cosmical force consumed in any 
interval of time is the amount intercepted by all the atoms 
of matter, and is independent of the motions that result 
from the inequalities just noticed. Gravitation, and molec- 
ular and chemical attractions, which originate in the grav- 
itation of electric ether toward atoms of ordinary matter, 
are then derivative forces incidental to the direct actions 
exerted by the cosmical force upon the atoms." 3 

In a communication from Professor ^Norton to the au- 
thor, he furnishes the following further exposition of his 
theory: "If, as I conceive, the primary atomic force is 
of the nature of a perpetual emanation from each atom, 
and is expended in the act of producing motion, we must 
thence infer that the atom is an entity through which a 
stream of force is perpetually flowing from the Infinite 
Source of all power and all existence. That the primary 
force is a force of repulsion, and that the immediate source 

1 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xlix. pp. 32, 33. 

2 How gravitation may result from the interception of the Cosmic Force 
of Repulsion is explained by Prof. Norton at pp. 26-28, and still more fully 
in vol. iii. 3d Series, May, 1872, pp. 332, 330. 

3 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xlix. p. 34. 



222 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of all the forces that are known to take effect upon ordi- 
nary matter is the action of recurring repulsive impulses 
upon the atoms of the universal ether, and their subse- 
quent propagation and partial interception by the atoms 
which they encounter, I infer from the fact that this con- 
ception furnishes a rational explanation of all the known 
forces and phenomena of inanimate nature." 

It will thus be seen that the theory of Professor Norton 
gives no countenance to the materialistic tendencies of the 
physical science of the age. He is decidedly of the opinion 
that "force is not an inherent and essential attribute of 
matter," and he " devoutly acknowledges that in following 
the chain of cause and effect into the precincts of that 
most deeply hidden of all mysteries, the origin of force, 
we have come into the presence of the Infinite Spirit who 
puts forth unceasingly, from every point in the realms of 
space, his creative and sustaining power upon the subtile 
matter that fills all space, and is the essential substance 
of all worlds" 1 

3. The third hypothesis is that of a plastic nature, in- 
termediate between God and the material universe, by 
which all the phenomena of visible nature are produced. 

This hypothesis was first presented (at least in modern 
times) by Ralph Cudworth, in his " True Intellectual Sys- 
tem of the Universe." 2 In opposition to Democritus, who 
explained all phenomena by means of matter and motion ; 
and also in opposition to Strato, who taught that matter 
is the only substance, but at the same time a living and 
active force, Cudworth maintains that there is a plastic 
nature — a vital and spiritual, but unconscious energy, dis- 

1 American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xlix. p. 33. 

2 See vol. i. pp. 217-284. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 223 

tinct from and created by the Deity, which "doth drudg- 
ingly execute that part of his providence which consisteth 
in the regular and orderly motion of matter," 1 and in the 
organization and development of plants and animals, " ac- 
cording to laws prescribed for it by a perfect intellect, and 
impressed upon it." 2 This plastic nature is an "inferior 
kind of life or soul," destitute of all consciousness, 3 which, 
though it " acts for the sake of ends," does " not know the 
reason of what it does," and therefore operates "fatally 
and sympathetically." 4 

The arguments urged by Cudworth in support of this 
hypothesis are mainly of a negative character. On the 
one hand he endeavors to show that force and vitality are 
not essential attributes of matter, and on the other hand 
that the motion and life of the universe can not be prop- 
erly regarded as the direct action of the Deity upon mat- 
ter. It is with this latter part of the argument that we 
are here immediately concerned. He urges (1) that if 
every thing in nature were done immediately by God, it 
would render Divine Providence " oporose, solicitous, and 
distractions ;" and, furthermore, it would be unbecoming 
the Divine Majesty, and "indecorous," for 'God "immedi- 
ately to do all the meanest and triflingest things Him- 
self drudgingly." He maintains (2) that if God do all 
things immediately, then he does them "miraculously" — 
that is, " forcibly and violently." And (3) that the imme- 
diate agency of God is inconsistent with that slow and 
gradual development of things we see in nature, which 
would seem to be a " trifling formality " if the agent were 
omnipotent, and especially inconsistent with " those errors 
and bunglings which are committed when the matter is 

1 "Intellectual System of the Universe," vol. i. p. 224. 3 Ibid. p. 244. 

2 Ibid. p. 271. * Ibid. p. 271. 



224 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

inept and contumacious." "Wherefore it may be con- 
cluded that there is a plastic nature under God which, as 
an inferior agent, doth drudgingly execute that part of 
his providence which consists in the regular and orderly 
motion of matter, yet so that there is also a higher provi- 
dence, which, presiding over it, doth often supply the de- 
fects of it, and sometimes overrule it ; forasmuch as the 
plastic nature can not act electively nor with discretion." 
So that, after all, as Plato says, God "is the beginning 
and end and middle of all things," and therefore their 
being is " as much to he ascribed to his causality as if 
Himself had done all things immediately without the 
concurrent instrumentality of any subordinate natural 
cause." 1 

There is nothing original in this hypothesis of a plastic 
nature except perhaps the name. It is the old anima 
mundi of the Platonic physics, a vital soul of the world, 
distinct from but created by the Supreme God. It has 
reappeared under various names in the history of natural 
science, especially in that department which is now com- 
prehended under the general name of Biology. The 
" motus tonico-vitalis " of Stahl, the " animating princi- 
ple " of Harvey, the " materia vitce " of John Hunter, the 
" organic force " of Midler, and the " organic agent " of 
Dr. Prout, are all but separate names "for an imaginary 
principle, or entity, possessing powers and properties which 
(however men may try to impress themselves with a con- 
trary notion) would entitle it to rank as an intelligent 
agent. It is true that, according to most of the advocates 
of this doctrine, this power is supposed to be superintend- 
ed and controlled by the Deity himself, and by this sup- 
position they have screened themselves against the accu- 

1 "Intellectual System of the Universe," vol. i. pp. 223-4. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 225 

sation of attributing to a creature the powers of the Crea- 
tor." 1 

Cudworth's hypothesis of a plastic nature has been re- 
cently reproduced, without the slightest recognition of its 
paternity, by Joseph John Murphy, under the name of 
"unconscious intelligence" — "a power transcending the 
ordinary properties of matter and adapting means to pur- 
poses, presiding over all vital actions, whether formative, 
motor, or mental, directing each action to its specific end." 2 
Mr. Murphy is very solicitous that we should not under- 
stand him to teach that " the formative intelligence " which 
in nature adapts structure to function is Divine. " I be- 
lieve," he says, " that the Creator has not separately organ- 
ized every structure, but has endowed vitalized matter with 
intelligence, under the guidance of which it organizes it- 
self." 3 This " unconscious intelligence," which builds the 
tissues and fashions the organs of plants and animals, be- 
comes conscious of itself in the deliberate thought of man. 4 

It is worthy of note that this hypothesis commends it- 
self to the mind of Murphy by considerations akin to 
those which are urged by Cudworth ; and especially be- 
cause it is supposed to relieve certain moral difficulties con- 
nected with the belief of a Divine purpose in creation — 
as, for example, the existence of parasitic worms which in- 
flict pain and disease on beings endowed with sensation 
and consciousness, and the presence of " immoral instincts " 
in higher forms of animal life. 5 

We readily grant that the relation of God to the exist- 
ing order and economy of the world is mysterious ; and 
we believe that no conceivable hypothesis can deprive it 

1 Todd, Bowman, and Beale, "Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of 
Man," p. 25. 

2 "Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. p. 5, * Ibid. p. 5. 

3 Ibid. p. 8. 5 Ibid. pp. G, 7. 



226 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of this mysteriousness. There are numerous difficulties 
which arise from the imperfection of our knowledge and, 
the limited range of our powers. "We see through an ob- 
scure medium, and we know only in part. There are also 
difficulties peculiar to individual minds — intellectual, eth- 
ical, emotional difficulties — which are the products of a 
peculiar culture, or the offspring of certain theoretical pre- 
possessions. Some of these difficulties may be relieved by 
the hypothesis of " unconscious intelligence," but on a fur- 
ther examination it will be found that this hypothesis is 
embarrassed with still greater difficulties and open to more 
serious objections both intellectual and moral. 

First, there is the difficulty of forming any conception of 
"unconscious intelligence." This has been felt by the ablest 
minds. " The hypothesis," says Wallace, " has the double 
disadvantage of being both unintelligible and incapable of 
any kind of proof." l Mivart observes that the phrase will 
" to many minds appear to be little less than a contradic- 
tion in terms ; the very first condition of an intelligence 
being that, if it know any thing, it should at least know 
its own existence." 2 Mr. Murphy tells us that this uncon- 
scious intelligence "adapts means to ends," "it presides 
over all vital actions, directing each action to its specific 
end." 3 But an intelligence adapting means to ends with- 
out any knowledge (consciousness) of either the ends to be 
secured or the means to be employed to secure the end 
surpasses all comprehension and all belief. We can read- 
ily believe, with Hamilton, that the human mind "exerts 
energies and is the subject of modifications " of which it 
is not immediately conscious, the combined results of which 
are manifested in the complex fact of consciousness. But 



1 " On Natural Selection," p. 360. 2 " Genesis of Species," p. 294. 

" Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. p. 5. 



3 (< 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 227 

to call that intelligence which never had a perception, a 
thought, an emotion ; which has no knowledge of self or 
of any thing else ; in short, which is not and never was 
conscious, is to reduce philosophic terminology to chaoSj 
and tantalize thought by meaningless words. An intelli- 
gent agent is one who understands^ who distinguishes be- 
tween subject and object, who knows things in their rela- 
tions, who can unite the terms of a relation in thought, 
and judge of their cougruity or incongruity, all of which are 
conscious operations. Intelligence is consciousness (con- 
scientia = relational knowledge); unconscious intelligence 
is unconscious consciousness, unintelligent intelligence, 
which is a contradiction and an absurdity. 

Secondly, in endeavoring to find the mental stand-point 
of Mr. Murphy, in order that we may fairly estimate his 
hypothesis, we encounter the still more serious difficulty 
of conceiving how unconscious intelligence can exist apart 
from some subject or substratum in which it inheres. 

We are aware that " the tendency of modem thought " 
is to hypostatize force and intelligence, and conceive them 
as entities. We have conscientiously made the attempt 
again and again' to realize this conception, but we must 
confess we can only conceive of force and intelligence as 
properties or attributes of some subject. It is beyond our 
ability, and we imagine it is beyond the ability of Mr. 
Murphy, to conceive of force without something that ex- 
erts force, of intelligence without a being who is intelli- 
gent. Indeed, Mr. Murphy concedes that "where there 
are properties there must be a sid)stance, vi and by sub- 
stance, he says, he understands " 'underlying reality" 2 
Unconscious intelligence, if there be such a thing, must be 

1 " Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. p. 160. 

2 "Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 43. 



228 • THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

an attribute or quality inherent in some underlying sub- 
stance. But Mr. Murphy asserts "there is no scientific 
basis for the old belief in a distinct mental substance" 1 
— that is, if we understand him aright, so far as finite 
mind is concerned. On the other hand, he distinctly 
affirms that this unconscious intelligence is not Divine in- 
telligence. The power and intelligence which work in the 
world of matter and mind " are not the Divine power and 
intelligence." 2 Unconscious intelligence, then, must be 
an "endowment of vitalized matter;" 3 and life has its 
origin in no secondary cause, but in the direct action of 
creative power." 4 Now the question arises, What is mat- 
ter? On this point we must be careful not to misun- 
derstand or misrepresent Mr. Murphy. " Matter, whether 
viewed from a metaphysical or from an inductive point 
of view, is known only as a function of force, and can be 
described only in terms of force. In other words, the uni- 
verse is nothing but a manifestation of force? And 
now we ask, Of what force ? " Force," says Mr. Murphy, 
" is known to us by immediate consciousness as a function 
of our own mind and will ; that is to say, the mind, acting 
in will, is conscious of itself as a force — and we are able 
to conceive of force in no other way ; the only conception 
of force which we are able to frame is that of voluntary 
force, or the exertion of will. Either the force manifest- 
ed in the universe is the force of a Creative Will, or we 
are able to form no conception of it whatever" 5 Can 
there be any possibility of misunderstanding this lan- 
guage ? Matter itself is not an entity, not a substance ; 
it is a phenomenon, not a reality. Matter is " a function 

1 "Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 14. 

2 " Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. pp. 4, 7. 3 Ibid. p. 8. 
4 Ibid. vol. i. p. 89. 5 " Scientific Basis of Faith," pp. 351, 352. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 229 

of force." Force is a " fact of mind, and therefore spirit- 
ual." Consequently "matter can only be conceived as 
spiritual" 1 And now let us recall the statement of Mr. 
Murphy that there is no finite, created, underlying reality 
for the phenomena of mind and will — " no distinct mental 
substance? If we hold to this doctrine, then we must say 
with Mr. Murphy again that "'the powers of matter and 
mind alike are the result and expression of a Living Will 
— and if a Living Will, then also an Intelligent Will." 2 
The final and only conclusion is that God, " the Self -ex- 
istent Being," is the one only underlying reality or sub- 
stance in the universe; all the force in the universe is 
"the force of the Creative Will," and all the intelligence 
in the universe a modification of the Divine Thought. 

This, however, is Pantheism, even according to that very 
defective definition of Pantheism given by Mr. Murphy : 
" Pantheism is the identification of the Divine power and 
intelligence with the powers and intelligences that work in 
the world of matter and mind." 3 Still, Mr. Murphy de- 
clares, "I am not a Pantheist ;" and we are bound to accept 
his disclaimer — " the power and intelligence which work 
in nature are not identical with the Divine power and in- 
telligence." Be it so ; then there is poAver, and there is 
intelligence in nature, which are not attributes of any real- 
ity, and which do not inhere in any substance ; and we 
come round to the original difficulty of conceiving of an 
attribute apart from a subject. 

1 " Scientific Basis of Faith," pp. 46, 47. 2 Ibid. pp. 51, 52. 

3 " Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. p. 7. " Pantheism asserts the absolute 
unity and permanence of substance with its two attributes of matter and 
force (= extension and thought), and their innumerable modifications which 
go to form all the phenomena of the universe." — Dr. Cohn. Under this 
definition, Mr. Murphy must be ranked a Pantheist. He knows but of one 
substance underlying all phenomena. 



230 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The reader can not have failed to see that Mr. Murphy 
has been leading us round a vicions circle. " Force is a 
function of matter, and matter is a function of force." 1 
" Matter is only explicable as a function of force, force 
only explicable as a function of conscious mind," 2 and 
mind is " one of the functions of matter." 3 " It is per- 
fectly certain," says Mr. Murphy, " that inductive psychol- 
ogy gives no hint of any mental substance as distinguish- 
ed from the material substance of the brain." 4 But the 
material substance of the brain after all is not material; 
"matter can only be conceived as spiritual" 5 — that is, as 
force. There is no underlying reality which men call 
" matter," and there is no underlying reality which men 
call " spirit." Matter is spirit, spirit is matter ; but in real- 
ity neither the one nor the other has any substantial reality. 
If all finite existences are but modes of the Infinite Being, 
we have a consistent Pantheism at any rate. But if all 
finite existences are simply phenomena without any under- 
lying reality, then " perception is a dream, and my existence 
the dream of that dream." 

Thirdly, the hypothesis of an " unconscious intelligence" 
distinct from the Supreme Intelligence, which does " the 
drudgery of Providence," and to which the defects and 
disorders and "immoralities" of nature are ascribed, is 
neither adequate nor satisfactory. 

The conceit of Cudworth that it is unbecoming the 
Divine Majesty to be immediately concerned in every 
thing that takes place in nature is scarcely worthy of con- 
sideration : " If it were not congruous in respect of the 
state and majesty of Xerxes, the king of Persia, that he 
should condescend to do all the meanest offices himself, 

1 " Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 29. 4 Ibid. p. 35. 

2 Ibid. p. 14. 3 Ibid. p. 36. 5 Ibid. p. 47. 



CONSERVATION— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 231 

much less can this be thought decorous in respect of 
God." 1 

Human conceptions of what is great or small, dignified 
or indecorous, are merely relative conceptions which vary 
with our knowledge, culture, and taste ; but — 

"There is no great and no small 
To the soul that maketh all." — Emerson. 

For the Creator of all things an atom is an ample field 
in which to display the resources of his omnipotence. 
The more the microscope and spectroscope reveal of the 
" infinitely little," the more do we see of the greatness and 
glory of God. So of men's conceptions of what is digni- 
fied or indecorous ; it may be that, in a land and an age 
where labor is held in contempt, it becomes the state of an 
Eastern monarch that he should live in voluptuous ease, 
but the followers of Him who said, " My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work," have learned to believe in the dignity 
of labor, and to regard all true work as divine. An im- 
perfect human ruler can not do every thing, therefore he 
must employ agents and ministers ; the Omnipotent Ruler 
of the universe can do all things, and needs no subordinate 
ministry. A finite mind can not know every thing, and 
often staggers beneath the burden of its limited acquisi- 
tions; the Infinite Mind must know all things, and can 
not be perplexed amid the boundless profusion of its own 
creations. It is only a childish impotence or a barbaric 
vanity which sees the need of supplementary agencies to 
add to the splendor and efficiency of the Divine govern- 
ment of the world. "Are not two sparrows sold for a 
farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground 
without your Father." " The very hairs of your head are 
all numbered." Such views exalt rather than diminish 
1 "Intellectual System of the Universe," vol. i. p. 223. 



232 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

our reverence for the majesty of God. But there is neither 
congruity nor dignity in the hypothesis that God has as- 
sociated with Himself an agent which is " unconscious? 
whose action He must direct, 1 and whose " shortcomings 
and defects " He must supply. 2 Dr. Mosheim, the anno- 
tator of Cudworth's "Intellectual System," pertinently 
remarks : " That master has enough to do who must con- 
tinually take care that the servants he employs, unskill- 
ful and devoid of reason, do not err; who must preside 
over the actions of his agents, and continually remedy the 
defects and mischiefs they occasion. . . . That master is 
the happier man who possesses the power of conducting 
his own affairs, who can do all things himself, and needs 
no servants whatever." But if subordinate agents are 
needed, or if it please the Supreme Being to employ them, 
the presumption is certainly in favor of rational conscious 
agents, rather than blind unconscious forces which can 
neither conceive a purpose nor adapt means to secure it. 
If we must have formative agents, we prefer the "junior 
divinities" of Plato or the " higher intelligences" of Mr. 
Wallace. 3 

But even admitting there are " defects, deformities, and 
superfluities" in nature, we are at a loss to conceive how 
the hypothesis of an " unconscious intelligence," working 
necessarily, removes the blame (if there be any blame) 
from the Author of nature. Does not every theist believe 
that the Creator of matter " saw and knew every purpose 
which every particle and atom of matter should subserve 
in all suns and systems, and through all coming seons of 
time ?" Must not that Intelligent Will, which is the fount- 

1 " Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 52. 

2 " Intellectual System," vol. i. p. 224. 

3 " On Natural Selection," p. 372. 



CONSERVATION— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 233 

ain-head of all the force that sweeps like a tide of life 
through the universe, have known every form of energy 
which could result therefrom, and foreseen all the possible 
effects which would arise from the composition of any and 
all systems of forces ? Did not He who created this sup- 
posed " organizing force," who ordained all its laws, and 
who directs and controls all its actions, know with mathe- 
matical precision every consequence which could possibly 
arise from its prearranged and necessitated adaptations? 
If God is the creator of this unconscious, necessitated 
" plastic nature," if He always observes what it does, if He 
directs and overrules it, if He supplies some of its defects 
and corrects most of its mistakes, must not He be regarded 
as the real cause of all things which, in popular language, 
are said to be done by nature? If we believe with Mr. 
Murphy that 

"Nature is but the name for an effect 
Whose cause is God," 

we shall find no relief from the difficulties and mysteries 
of Divine providence by interposing between the first cre- 
ative volition and the last phenomenal result a series of 
secondary causes which are themselves only effects of the 
primal creative act. It were better far to leave the mys- 
tery untouched, and take refuge in faith ; better to confess 
the difficulties are insoluble, and 

"Still trust that God is love indeed, 
' And love Creation's final law ; 

Though nature, red in tooth and claw 
With ravin, shrieks against our creed." 

"We are brought finally to the question whether, in real- 
ity, there is any thing defective or any thing superfluous 
in the normal products of organic nature? or, in other 
words, whether the Author of nature has made any thing 



234 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

inadequate to its purpose, or which fulfills no purpose what- 
ever? We venture to suggest that inductive science is not 
in possession either of the facts or the principles which are 
necessary to a correct judgment. To be competent to 
deal with this question, science should not only know all 
the purposes which may be fulfilled by a single organism, 
but also the ultimate purpose which is subserved by the 
wondrous play of all the means and relative ends which 
constitute the entire cosmos. Far be it from us to depre- 
ciate the achievements or dare to set limits to the possi- 
bilities of inductive science. But, assuredly, the most en- 
thusiastic scientist will admit that, compared with the vast- 
ness and complexity of natural phenomena, human knowl- 
edge is exceedingly limited and very imperfect. As to 
the final purpose of creation — the ultimate end of the 
Creator in the existence of the universe — modern science 
does not even claim to have an opinion. 1 With no knowl- 
edge of the ultimate purpose of creation, with a limited 
acquaintance with the general plan of the universe, with 
an imperfect knowledge of the reasons and ends of indi- 
vidual existences, it seems little less than impertinence for 
science to sit in judgment on the works of God, and uncere- 
moniously condemn this as defective and that as unneces- 
sary. As Baden Powell observes, " How can we under- 
take to affirm, amid all the possibilities of things of which 
we confessedly know so little, that a thousand ends and 
purposes may not be answered, because we can trace none, 
or even imagine none, which seem to our short-sighted 
faculties to be answered." 2 In view of the fact that hith- 
erto the belief in "purpose" or "final cause" has been 
the guiding light of science, and the further fact that sci- 

1 Tyndall, "Fragments of Science," p. 104. 

2 "Unity of Worlds, "p. 230. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 235 

ence is every day making new discoveries as to the utility 
of existences and organs of which before we were igno- 
rant, scientific men might learn a profitable lesson, and 
manifest less " audacity." l Meantime we shall be content 
with the assurances of Scripture that " the works of God 
are perfect" and that "He hath made nothing in vain" 

"We may now gather up the several threads of thought 
which rim through this essay, and state our final conclusions : 

1. Matter is the merely passive or statical condition for 
the action of force. 2 The most fundamental condition or 
characteristic of matter, " perhaps its only true indication, 
is inertia? 3 " All that we can affirm of it is that it is the 
recipient of impulse and of Energy." 4 All the attempts 
which have been made to reduce matter to a function or 
phenomenon of force have ended in failure. Motion nec- 
essarily implies a something which is moved by the action of 
force. Even that most wonderful and subtile of all " modes 
of motion" — light — necessarily implies an entity which is 
moved. " The magnetic rotation of the plane of polarized 
light, discovered by Faraday, implies an actual rotatory 
motion of something." " The seeing intellect," says Mr. 
Tyndall, " when properly focused, must realize this concep- 
tion at last." Matter must consist of ultimate continuous 
atoms or molecules possessing inertia and capable of being 
moved in space. By virtue of its extension and inertia it 

1 Tyndall. 

2 By the statical properties of matter ^e understand extension, limit, posi- 
tion, impenetrability, and inertia. We have no idea that there is a vis iner- 
tice in matter. Vis inertiae is a forceless force, which is an absurdity. In- 
ertness in matter is not a force, but the opposite of a force — a passivity which 
requires a force in order to change. 

3 Faraday, " Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 368. 

4 Clerk Maxwell, in Nature, vol. ii. p. 421 ; Herschel, "Familiar Lect- 
ures on Science," p. 467. 



236 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

can intercept force, transform force into energy, and trans- 
mit energy. The various forms of energy (heat, light, elec- 
tricity, magnetism, etc.) are transformations of force result- 
ing directly or indirectly from the interception of force by 
inert matter, and " all the phenomena of material nature 
result from the action of force upon matter." 1 "Matter," 
says M. Claude Bernard, " does not generate the phenomena 
which it manifests. It is only the substratum, and does 
absolutely nothing but give to phenomena the conditions 
of its manifestation." 2 

2. Force is that which originates or tends to originate 
motion, or changes or tends to change the state of a body 
with regard to motion. It is not and can not be a proper- 
ty of matter. The doctrine that force is an attribute of 
matter is disproved by the fact of inertia. Inert matter 
can have no spontaneous power — it can not change its own 
state of motion or rest. Neither is motion capable per se 
of producing motion. It is a fundamental axiom of nat- 
ural philosophy that motion can not be generated by mo- 
tion itself, any more than by the negation of motion. In- 
ertness and exertion, passivity and activity, are contradic- 
tory attributes, and can not be affirmed of the same subject. 
To say that matter is inert, and at the same time that it 
can exert force, is to violate the law of non-contradiction 
to the uttermost. 

Force is an attribute of mind or spirit, and of mind or 
spirit alone. Spirit-force is the only force in the universe. 
It is a doctrine as old as the hills that mind is the first 
cause of motion. Nouc ptv apxnv Kivrjaeojg. 3 It is a doc- 

1 Professor Norton, in the American Journal of Science and Arts, July, 
1 864, p. 64; Herschel, "Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 467; Dr. Car- 
penter, "Human Physiology," p. 542. 

2 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1867. 3 Anaxagoras. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 237 

trine toward which all modern science tends with remark- 
able unanimity that all motion is the product of mind ; 
and, though continued and transformed and transmitted 
through various means, it never commences except in a 
volition either of the Supreme Mind or of a created mind. 
" The deep-seated instincts of humanity and the profound- 
est researches of philosophy alike point to Mind as the one 
and only source of power."* "The conception of force 
as the originator of motion in matter, without bodily con- 
tact or the intervention of any intermedium, is essential to 
the right interpretation of physical phenomena ; ... its ex- 
ertion makes itself manifest to our personal consciousness 
by the peculiar sensation of effort; . . . and it [force] af- 
fords a point of contact, a connecting link between the two 
great departments of being — between mind and matter — 
the one as its originator, the other as its recipient? 

3. All the forms of energy manifested in the universe 
are only transformations of the one omnipresent force is- 
suing from the one fountain-head of power — the Divine 
Will. The final disclosure of modern science is the con- 
vertibility and homogeneity of all forms of physical energy 
— " a dynamical self-identification masked by transmigra- 
tion." Of this wonderful transformation of energy many 
striking illustrations may be given; we select the follow- 
ing from the " Lecture Notes " of Dr. A. F. Mayer (p. 64) : 
"The heat developed by the 'falling force' of a weight 
striking the terminals of a compound thermal battery 
(formed by pieces of iron and German-silver wire twisted 
together at alternate ends) caused a current of electricity 
through the wire which, being conducted through a helix, 
magnetized a needle (which then attracted iron particles), 

1 Dr. Carpenter, in Nature, vol. vi. p. 312. 

2 Herschel, " Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 467. 



238 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

caused light to appear in a portion of the circuit formed 
of Wollaston's fine wire, decomposed iodide of potassium, 
and finally moved the needles of a galvanometer." ' Here 
we have visible kinetic energy transformed into sensible 
heat, then absorbed heat converted into electricity, then 
electricity transformed into magnetism, also into light, and 
still farther into the energy of chemical separation, while 
some portion of it returns to the form of visible energy of 
motion. Of course, some of the energy is dissipated in the 
form, of radiance (radiant light and heat), but no energy is 
either created or destroyed. All the various forms of en- 
ergy are thus reducible to unity; they are one force trans- 
formed by mechanical arrangements. "Electricity and 
magnetism, heat and light, muscular energy and chemical 
action, motion and mechanical work, are only different 
forms of one and the same power. . . . Moreover, chemical 
union of the elements of matter, the attraction of gravita- 
tion in all the bodies of the universe, are but varied forms 
of this universal motive force." 2 If it be asked, What 
is that one form of force which is to be taken as the type 
of all the rest ? the explicit answer of the first scientists of 
the age is, " Force must be regarded as the direct expres- 
sion of that mental state which we call Will. All force 
is of one type, and that type is mind." 3 This is conceded 
even by Herbert Spencer : " The force by which we our- 
selves produce changes, and which serves to symbolize the 
cause of changes in general, is the final disclosure of aualy- 

1 For other illustrations, see Cooke's " Religion of Chemistry," pp. 326-8 ; 
Grove, "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," pp. 116, 117. 

2 Dr. Cohn, of the University of Breslau, in Nature, vol. vii. p. 137. 

3 Carpenter, "Human Physiology," p. 542; Herschel, "Outlines of As- 
tronomy," pp. 233, 234 ; Wallace, "On Natural Selection," p. 368 ; Murphy, 
"Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 51; Laycock, "Mind and Brain," vol. i. 
pp. 225, 258-9, 304. 



• CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO TEE WORLD. 239 

sis." ! The whole conception is summed up in one compre- 
hensive statement by Professor Norton, of Yale College : 
"I regard the primary force of repulsion as incessantly 
outstreaming in every direction from every ethereal atom 
(which is incessantly renewed), and as it spreads outward 
ever tending toward evanescence on each radiating line by 
the mere result of its own expansion — a perpetual stream 
of force flowing from the Infinite Source of all power, 
vanishing ultimately by diffusion in the infinite expanse of 
the universe. It breaks incessantly against the atoms of 
bodies, and so furnishes the secondary streams of force that 
maintain the constitution and determine the phenomena of 
the material universe." 2 Force, then, is the act of the im- 
manent Deity, who puts forth unceasingly from every point 
in the realm of space his creative and sustaining power. 

4. All the phenomena of molecular life (bioplasmic phe- 
nomena) are the result of the immediate presence and di- 
rect agency of God. 3 

This is the doctrine which must finally be accepted, 
whether vitality be regarded as a mode of energy — a trans- 
formation of chemico-physical forces — or as a distinct and 
special force. Dr. Carpenter has long held that the phys- 
ical and vital forces are mutually convertible, but he re- 
gards both as the result of the direct action of the Deity. 
"Believing that all force which does not emanate from the 
will of created sentient beings directly and immediately 
proceeds from the loill of the Omnipotent and Omnipres- 
ent Creator ; and looking on the (what we are accustomed 

1 "First Principles," p. 235. 2 Letter to the author. 

3 The distinction made by Dr. Carpenter between molecular (bioplasmic) 
and somatic (individual) life is important : molecular life is a cosmic force, 
somatic life is an individualized force ; the former is the direct action of Dei- 
ty, the second is the indwelling of a created but yet dependent spiritual enti- 
ty in a vitalized organism. 



240 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLIX 

to call) physical forces as so many modi operandi of one 
and the same agency, the creative and sustaining will of 
the Deity, I do not feel the validity of the objections urged 
against the idea of the absolute metamorphosis or conver- 
sion of forces." 1 Inasmuch, however, as the advocates of 
this theory have failed to establish either a quantitative or 
a qualitative relation between the vital and physical forces, 
but, on the contrary, the most exact and careful biological 
researches show them to be inconvertible and antagonistic, 
we are constrained still to hold the doctrine maintained by 
Dr. Beale. 

The ancient doctrine that " Life is the cause, and not the 
consequence of organization," 2 still maintains its ground 
against all assaults. Harvey's famous maxim, Omne vivum 
ex ovo — as amended by Charles Robin, Omne vivum ex 
vivo — stands yet unrefuted ; and, as Sir William Thomson 
remarked in his inaugural address before the British Asso- 
ciation of Science, " This seems to me as sure a teaching of 
science as the law of gravitation. I confess to being deep- 
ly impressed by the evidence put before us by Professor 
Huxley, and I am ready to adopt it as an article of scien- 
tific faith — true through all space and all time — that life 
proceeds from life, and nothing out life." 3 Life has its 
origin in no secondary cause, but in the immediate pres- 
ence and direct action of the Deity. God is the author 
and giver of Life — the constant sustainer of all vitality; 
" in Him we live and move and are." 

The final conclusion to be drawn from these propositions 
is that God is not simply the transitive but the immanent 

1 "On the Mutual Relation of the Vital and Physical Forces," Philosoph- 
ical Transactions, 1850, p. 730. See also Laycock, " Mind and Brain," vol. 
i. p. 304 ; Wallace, in Nature, vol. vi. p. 285. 

2 Huxley, "Introduction to the Classification of Animals," 

3 Nature, vol. iv. p. 2G9. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 241 

cause of the universe. , He is in nature, not merely as a 
regulative principle impressing laws upon matter, but as 
a constitutive principle, the ever-present source and ever- 
operating cause of all its phenomena. If by the term 
nature we understand the totality of necessary and uni- 
form phenomena, God is the immediate cause of all uni- 
form and necessary phenomena. If by nature we under- 
stand the varied forms of energy which underlie the phe- 
nomena, and are manifested in the phenomena, these forms 
of energy are but various modes in which the omnipresent 
power of God reveals itself. God is immanent in matter, 
and his ceaseless energy produces all the phenomena of 
nature. Nature is more than matter : it is matter swayed 
by Divine power, and organized and animated by the Di- 
vine life. 

But the question may be here raised, Is not this iden- 
tification of the dynamical life of the universe with God, 
Pantheism? We answer in the language of James Mar- 
tineau: "It certainly would be so if we also turned the 
proposition round and identified God with no more than 
the life of the universe, and treated the two terms as for 
all purposes interchangeable. If in affirming the Divine 
immanency in nature we deny the Divine transcendency 
beyond nature, and pay our worship to the aggregate of all 
its powers, the law of its laws, the unity of its organism;. . . 
then undoubtedly we do pass from part to whole, and rest 
in a dream of future science instead of emerging into im- 
mediate religion." 1 The theory which represents the De- 
ity as the transitive cause of the universe — a Ati/Movpyoc: 
mechanically fashioning the materials supplied to his hands, 
and then leaving it to the working of its own inherent 
forces — is rank Deism. The hypothesis which regards the 

1 "God in Nature," in Old and New, 1872, p. 1G3. 

Q 



242 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Deity as no more than the dynamical life of the universe — 
an informing and organizing soul associated with matter — 
is naked Hylozoism. The theory that reduces all exist- 
ence, material and mental, to phenomenal manifestations 
of one eternal self-existent substance whidh evolves itself 
according to an inward law of necessity, and which is elu- 
sively called God, is Pantheism. But the doctrine which 
embraces the two conceptions of transcendence and imma- 
nence, and while it teaches the immanence of God in mat- 
ter, proclaims the infinite distinctness in essence between 
matter and God, and the infinite omnipresence of a per- 
sonal God above and beyond the limitations of matter, is 
Christian Theism. 1 

And now, in conclusion, may we not say that this dictum 
of faith that the universe exists only in virtue of the con- 
tinued Will of its Creator, is coining more and more to be 
recognized as a scientific fact. The will of God is the one 
primal force which streams forth in ever-recurring im- 
pulses with an immeasurable rapidity at every point in 
space — an incessant pulse-beat of the Infinite Life. 2 The 
disposition and collocations of matter are simply the con- 
ditions necessary to the manifestation of this primal force. 
The chemical atom, "already quite a complex little world," 3 
is a mechanism for the interception, transformation, and 
transmission of force. All the varied forms of energy are 
but secondary and derivative streams of force — forms of 
energy which are conceivable only as effects, and which 
by mere accommodation we may be permitted to call 
" causes," yet with this specific reservation that " they 

1 Methodist Quarterly Review, July, 1871, p. 499. 

2 "All atomic forces are incessant forces that are made up of impulses 
which are renewed every instant." — Professor Norton, in the American Jour- 
nal of Science and Arts, vol. iii. 3d Series, p. 331. 

3 Sir W. Thomson, in Nature, vol. iv. p. 260. 



CONSERVATION.— RELATION OF GOD TO THE WORLD. 243 

4 

are not vicegerents outside of the Divine Will, bnt are 
held within the Divine Will." "The word 'cause' may 
be used in a secondary and concrete sense as meaning an- 
tecedent forces, yet in an abstract sense it is totally inap- 
plicable ; we can not predicate of any physical agent that 
it is abstractedly the cause of another ; and if, for the sake 
of convenience, the language of secondary causation be 
permissible, it should only be with reference to the special 
phenomena referred to, as it can never be generalized." 
" The common error, if I am right in supposing it to be 
such, consists in the abstraction of cause, and in suppos- 
ing in each case a general secondary cause — a something 
which is not the First Cause, but which, if we examine it 
carefully, must have all the attributes of a first cause, and 
an existence independent of and dominant over matter." 
"Causation is the Will of God." 1 The Divine conser- 
vation of the world is the simple, universal, uniform effi- 
ciency of God. 

1 Grove, "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," pp. 15, 18, 199. See 
also the words of Dr. Mayer in the same volume, p. 341. 



244 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PEOVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTOEY. 

"He hath made of one blood all the nations of mankind to dwell upon the 
face of the whole earth, and ordained to each the appointed seasons of their 
existence and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek God." — 
St. Paul. 

' ' Divine providence, which conducts all things marvelously, rules the se- 
ries of human generations from Adam to the end of the world like one man, 
who, from his infancy to his old age, furnishes forth his career in time in 
passing through all its ages." — St. Augustine. 

"The right education of the human race, so far as concerns the people of 
God, like that of a single man, advances through certain divisions of time, 
as that of the individual through the consecutive ages of human life." — St. 
Augustine. 

" Les nations sont regies par les memes lois que les individus." — Laurent. 

From the central and fundamental truth that God is 
the Creator and Conservator of the universe, Christian 
theology advances to the still more practical truth that 
He determines and presides over the development of the 
human race, leading it toward a foreseen and predesti- 
nated goal. 

This is the natural and logical order of thought. If 
nature and man were created and are still conserved by 
an intelligent power, there must be some reason or end 
for which they exist ; for intelligent power can only be 
conceived as a power which works toward ends. The ex- 
istence of the world and of man being given, the question 
concerning the purpose or end for which they exist be- 
comes unavoidable and necessary; and though physical 
science may proclaim " its inability to disclose the final 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 245 

purpose of creation," and speak contemptuously of all 
such inquiries, it does not by any means follow that Chris- 
tian doctrine can furnish no satisfactory answer to this 
inevitable question. As the reference of the dependent 
universe to the efficient ground of its existence gives the 
concepts of Creation and Conservation with which the 
idea of power is pre-eminently associated, so the refer- 
ence of the same to the ultimate reason of its existence 
gives the concepts of Providence and Moral Government 
with which the idea of all-wise love is immediately corre- 
lated. 

The Christian doctrine of Providence in human history 
is succinctly stated in the words of St. Paul : " God hath 
made of one blood all the nations of mankind to dwell 
upon the face of the whole earth, and ordained to each 
the appointed times of their existence and the bounds of 
their habitation, that they should seek after, and indeed 
feel after, and find the Lord." He has endowed man 
with intelligence and freedom by which he may achieve 
the conquest of nature, and be able to maintain his exist- 
ence and ascendency in every part of the habitable globe. 
A new and subtile force appears in the arena of nature, 
which is superior to nature, which can control and regu- 
late its action, and subordinate the forces of nature to the 
higher purposes and needs of spiritual and moral being. 
By travel and observation, by reasoning and invention, by 
interchange of ideas and products, man may continually 
enlarge the sphere of his knowledge, and multiply the 
means of improvement and happiness. 1 God has also 
"determined beforehand the time of each nation's exist- 



1 Mr. Wallace, the author of the theory of natural selection, denies its ap- 
plicability to man. Man is "a being apart," a "being superior to nature." 
"He has not only escaped ' natural selection ' himself, but he is actually able 



246 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ence, and the geographical boundaries of their habitation." 
Divine providence has decreed and presided over the dis- 
persions and migrations of the human race, and in the 
plan of history fixed the time when and the people by 
which each continent and island shall be inhabited. And 
the ultimate purpose of this providential arrangement and 
supervision is that men " may seek God, and feel after and 
really find Him," who for all dependent rational existence 
is the chief good. 

This, then, is the explicit teaching of Christian theol- 
ogy : The appearance of rational existence on the earth 
constitutes a distinct creative epoch ; the final cause of all 
rational existence is to know God, consciously to feel after 
and find Him ; and the whole of God's action upon hu- 
manity has been an inspiration, guidance, and education 
toward this end. The progress of the human race, the 
course of human history, is therefore a revelation of the 
Providence of God. 

"The -consideration of nature," says Niebuhr, "shows 
an inherent intelligence, which may be also considered 
as coherent in nature; so does history, on a hundred oc- 
casions, show an intelligence distinct from nature which 
conducts and determines those things which may seem to 
ns accidental; and it is not true that history weakens our 
belief in Divine providence. History is, of all kinds of 
knowledge, the one which tends most decidedly to that 
belief." * " History," observes Richter, " has, like nature, 
the highest value (if studied philosophically) in so far 
as we by means of it, as by means of nature, can divine 

to take away some of that power from nature which, before his appearance, 
she universally exercised " (" On Natural Selection," pp. 325, 326). See also 
Lubbock's "Prehistoric Times," last chapter. 

1 " Lectures on the History of Rome," vol. ii. p. 59. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 247 

and read the Infinite Spirit who, with nature and history 
as with letters, legibly writes to us. He who finds a God 
in the physical world will also find one in the moral world 
— which is history. ^Nature forces on our hearts a Creator ; 
history, a Providence." To the student of history it be- 
comes apparent that the hand of God has been guiding 
humanity toward the fulfillment of its destiny. God has 
presided over the development of human society and gov- 
ernment. Throughout the ages He has been the Educator 
of the race — leading, instructing, chastening, and blessing 
the nations. "Man holds relations to God not merely at 
the moment of creation ; he does not cease to be in con- 
nection with his Creator through the endless duration of 
his existence. The incessant action of God on man is 
grace ; the incessant action of God on humanity is provi- 
dential government." 1 "History is the manifestation of 
God's supervision of humanity, and the judgments of his- 
tory are the judgments of God." 2 

If we have here the true conception of history, if it is a 
manifestation of Divine supervision, direction, and disci- 
pline, then the question is at once legitimate and practical, 
AVhat is the end of this discipline ? what is the foreseen and 
predestinated goal toward which, through conflict and pain 
and travail, Divine providence is leading the human race ? 

It must be conceded on all hands that the adequate 
and final answer can only be given by that Divine pre- 
science which "sees the end from the beginning." The 
study of the past and of the present moral and religious 
phenomena of the world may afford to the philosophic 
mind some prevision of the future, but it is obvious that 
revelation alone can supply the principles which must con- 

1 Laurent, "Etudes sur l'Histoire de l'Humanite," vol. v. p. 14. 

2 Cousin, "History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 160. 



248 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD, 

stitute the light of history — the light in which even its 
darkest chapters may be interpreted, and its true philoso- 
phy evolved. 

The general answer which speculative thought has fur- 
nished to this question is that the goal of history is the 
highest perfection of humanity. Aristotle clearly recog- 
nizes that there must be an end or final cause of human 
existence and action — a rtXuov riXog {summitm bonum), 
or chief end. 1 He therefore addresses himself to the in- 
quiry, What is the chief good, or highest end of man? 
The conclusion which he reaches is, that it is the absolute 
satisfaction of his whole nature — that which men have 
agreed to call happiness. This happiness, however, is not 
mere sensual pleasure. The brute shares this in common 
with man, therefore it can not constitute the happiness of 
man. Human happiness must express the completeness of 
rational existence, or, as he expresses it, " a perfect practi- 
cal activity in a perfect life." 2 This "complete and per- 
fect life" is the complete satisfaction of our rational nat- 
ure. It is the realization of the Divine in man, and con- 
stitutes the absolute and all-sufficient good. 3 A good ac- 
tion is thus " an end in itself," inasmuch as it tends to se- 
cure \hz perfection of our nature. 

The human mind can not, however, rest in the general 
and vague idea of perfection; we are therefore pressed 
with the further question, In what does the highest per- 
fection of humanity consist ? by what standard are we to 
judge of this perfection ? what is the ideal toward which 
the progress of humanity may be presumed to tend, and 
which we hope it will ultimately attain ? The following 
considerations may furnish the answer : 

1 " Nichomachean Ethics, || bk. i. ch. ii. 2 Ibid. bk. i. ch. x. 

3 Ibid. bk. x. ch. viii. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD -IN HUMAN HISTORY. 249 

1. That ideal must be the same for the race as for the 
individual, the same for the nation as for the man. For, 
on the one hand, society exists for the sake of the indi- 
vidual, and it is only in society that individual existences 
can be preserved, developed, and perfected ; on the other 
hand, national character is but the expression of the col- 
lective or average character of the individual citizens. 

In seeking for the ideal of individual perfection, we 
must take account of all the capacities, powers, and rela- 
tions of man. We must have in view, not simply his 
physical and intellectual, but also his moral and religious 
nature. We must think of the relation in which he stands 
to his fellow-beings and to his God, as well as the rela- 
tion in which he stands to himself— that is, to the liberty 
and intelligence which are in him, and which he must de- 
velop. Now no man can be said to be complete, to be 
perfect, no man can be said to have reached his r£\og, or 
end, until he has developed in his thought and realized in 
his life the idea of the useful, the true, the just, the good, 
the pure, the Divine. Loyalty to God and the truth, jus- 
tice and charity toward men, self-control and purity of 
mind, intellectual discipline and cultivated taste — these are 
the characteristics of the perfect man. Judged from the 
Christian stand-point, he is the perfect man who has at- 
tained to that ideal of moral and spiritual excellence which 
was exhibited in the human life of Christ, that grand em- 
bodiment of all that is "pure and true and just and lovely 
and of good report." The realization of this ideal in the 
collective life of humanity must be the goal of history. ^ 

2. Further light is shed upon this problem by the con- 
sideration of the Christian idea of God. The gravitating 
point of Christian theology is found in the Divine decla- 
ration, "God is Love" (1 John iv. 8, 16). This is the 



2.50 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

most fundamental revelation of the Divine nature, so that 
nothing can pertain to his perfections or his works which 
is not ultimately resolvable into love. " If ever the idea 
of Divine justice, shall obtain consistency [in our systems 
of theology], it must be in general through the relation of 
infinite holy love to the spontaneous and self-determining 
capacity of the personal being, or the relation of Divine 
perfection to the existence of the economy in the uni- 
verse." 1 . The fact that God creates worlds and gives birth 
to personal existences is not grounded in his omnipotence, 
but in his love. Divine love is the determinative princi- 
ple of Divine efficiency — the final cause or ultimate rea- 
son of all existence. Creation must therefore be conceived 
as the free self-communication of God, who is Himself 
eternally self-complete and self-sufficient, but who, from 
love alone, wills that other intelligences shall have exist- 
ence who can " know God," and in fellowship with Him 
attain that fullness and fruition of being which is called 
"Eternal Life." 2 If, then, the Divine mind has always 
had this end in view — the perfection and blessedness of 
personal being in fellowship with Himself — it must be re- 
garded by us as the consummation toward which his prov- 
idence is leading humanity. 

3. The explicit declarations of Scripture are in perfect 
accord with these inferences drawn from the nature of 
man and the idea of God. We learn from the words of 
St. Paul that the aim of Divine providence is to lead the 
race to the practical recognition of the personal dignity of 
man as " the offspring of God ;" to the practical recogni- 
tion of the universal brotherhood of man, as "of one 
blood," with equal rights to place, provision, and free self- 

1 Nitzsch, "System of Christian Doctrine," p. 172. 

2 Miiller, "Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. p. HG. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 251 

development in " every part of the earth ;" finally, to the 
practical recognition of our relation to God as his depend- 
ent creatures, in fellowship with whom we have eternal 
life. 1 God's great end in the whole course and discipline 
of providence is to unite all men in bonds of mutual affec- 
tion and aid, and to unite the race to Himself in bonds of 
loyalty and love. Then " whatsoever things are true and 
pure and honest and lovely and of good report " will be 
revered and practiced among the nations of the earth. 

These views of Divine providence can scarcely be said 
to have had any place or any recognition in the ancient 
schools of philosophy. The Stoics taught that an invinci- 
ble necessity rules in the realm of history as well as in the 
field of nature, to which God and man are equally subject. 
" God is the reason of the world (tov iravTog tov Xoyov) ; 
the laws of the world are as necessary as the laws of 
eternal reason. This necessity is at once fate (eljuapfiivri), 
and the providence (wpovoia) which governs all things." 2 
The Epicureans reduced all existence to the plane of mere 
physical nature, and represented humanity as a develop- 
ment from the lower forms of life by the agency of blind, 
unconscious force. If they recognized the existence of 
any god or gods, they removed them far away from all 
intercourse with humanity, and all supervision of or con- 
cern in human affairs. " They admitted their existence 
in words," says Cicero, " but denied it in act." These two 
forms of error are combined by the modern deniers of 

1 Acts xvii. 25-28. 

2 Laurent, "Etudes sur l'Histoire de l'Humanite," vol. v. p. 12. Not all 
the Stoics seem to have understood this "necessity" in so rigorous a sense. 
Cleanthes would exempt the evil actions of men from necessity: "Nothing 
takes place without Thee, O Deity, except that which bad men do through their 
own want of reason; hut even that which is evil is overruled by Thee for good, 
and is made to harmonize with the plan of the world." — Hymn to Zeus. 



252 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

providence. Human society, languages, laws, institutions, 
arts, sciences, are all the products of matter and force. 
The succession of events, the progress of civilization, and 
the religious phenomena of the world, have not been 
determined by an intelligent Will, or presided over by a 
conscious Personality. In the last analysis, matter is re- 
solved into a function of force, and a process of neces- 
sary evolution, which has no design and no final purpose, 
is substituted for Divine providence. The ultimate des- 
tination of the world and humanity is unknown, or, if con- 
jecture is permissible, is chaos and death. 

In opposition to these cold and cheerless speculations 
Christianity affirms the doctrine of Divine providence in 
human history. 1 

By Providence we understand intelligent forethought 
and timely provision for all contingencies. The term 
supposes a precognized jplan^ a constant supervision of 
its development, and the control and subordination of 
all finite powers and agencies in order to its completion. 
From nature, strictly considered as the empire of me- 
chanical necessity, nothing can proceed but that which 
is posited in it by the immediate act of God ; and con- 
sequently, considered apart from man, there can be no 
contingency, and, properly speaking, no providence in this 
sphere. The existence of mere nature, however, can not 
be regarded as an end in itself. The whole interest and 
significance of nature is found in the conception that it ex- 
ists as a means for a higher end. As matter is simply the 
condition for the manifestation of force, as the physical 
forces are subordinated to the vital force, and the vital is 
subordinated to the mental, so is it a legitimate assump- 
tion, which we shall justify in the sequel, that all these are 

1 Laurent, "Etudes sur l'Histoire de 1'Humanite," vol. v. p. 12. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 253 

subordinated to the moral and spiritual. It is only in 
the sphere of spiritual being — that is, of self-conscious and 
self-determined being— and in the relation of nature to 
sjriritual being, that contingency can arise and providence 
find place. 

The uniform teaching of Scripture is that human his- 
tory is the special held of Divine providence. In fact, the 
historic portions of the Bible are nothing else than a rec- 
ord of the control 'and direction and subordination of hu- 
man agencies, and of external physical conditions in their 
relation to personal beings, by the hand of God. This 
primitive revelation throws light upon the cradle of hu- 
man civilization. It points to a period when man, at 
his departure from the hand of Gud, received those in- 
tellectual, moral, and spiritual endowments which raise 
him in the scale of being immeasurably above the animal 
creation, and fit him for a progress, a development to 
which no conceivable limits can be assigned. 1 The Bible 

1 The statement of the text will remain unaffected by any theory as to the 
derivation of the material organism of the primitive man. If the hypothesis 
be true that "man is the descendant of some pre-existent generic type, the 
which, if it were now living, we would probably call an ape," this can only 
be affirmed of the body of man, and the statement is still correct that " God 
formed man of the dust of the earth." The body of the ape and the body 
of man are formed of the same materials. But, as Prof. Cope, a thorough- 
going Evolutionist, remarks, this material nature can not bear or be "the 
image of God," for "God is a spirit," and "a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones" (Luke xxiv. 39). The image of God must inhere in that spiritual 
nature which was inbreathed by God, and consists in reason, conscience, and 
moral liberty. (See Cope, "On the Hypothesis of Evolution," pp. 33, 34.) 
This theory as to the descent of man's material organism from some pre- 
existent generic type does not by any means involve the conclusion of Sir J. 
Lubbock that "the primitive condition of mankind was one of utter barbar- 
ism." We may giant that the primitive condition of man was one of child- 
hood ignorance and inexperience, a state in which his intellectual and moral 
nature was undeveloped; but this is not "Savagism." Barbarism is the 
Lipse and deterioration of man. Even if it could be shown that primeval 
man was destitute of the industrious arts, "it would not afford the slightest 



254: THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

is the history of Divine providence from that signal 
commencement to the planting of the Christian Church, 
where we can clearly see all the lines along which the 
race advanced, converging upon "the Kingdom of God." 
It is a history of Divine interposition in human affairs, 
and of supernatural guidance toward a higher develop- 
ment and a nobler destiny. Indeed, to the eye of the ob- 
servant and conscientious student of all history, whether 
secular or ecclesiastical, there are undeniable evidences of 
the presence of Intelligence, disposing and collocating the 
conditions of human progress, and directing humanity to- 
ward a nobler civilization. 

Considering the earth in its relation to man, we must 
recognize the providence of God in the physical universe. 
The earth was unquestionably made for man. It was cre- 
ated, and has been especially adapted to be the theatre of 
human history. This is the doctrine of Scripture (Gen. 
i. 28-31 ; Psa. cxv. 16) — I believe it is also the doctrine 
of science. The geological changes through which the 
earth has passed indicate "a process of preparation" for 
the inhabitation of man. This process of preparation is 
fully recognized by Agassiz. " There has been," he says, 
"a manifest progress in the succession of beings on the 
surface of the globe. This progress consists in an increas- 
ing similarity to the living fauna, and, among the verte- 
brates especially, in the increasing resemblance to man. 
But this connection is not the consequence of a direct 

presumption that he was also ignorant of duty or ignorant of God" ("Prime- 
val Man," by the Duke of Argyll, p. 132). "Whenever we can trace back 
a religion to its first beginnings, we find it free from many blemishes that 
affect it in its later stages" (Max Miiller, "Chips from a German Work- 
shop," vol. i., preface). The most ancient form of religion was the Mono- 
theistic (Grimm, "Deutsche Mythologie,"p. xliv. 3d ed.). See also "Les 
Origines Indo-Europeennes," vol. ii. p. 720, by M. Adolphe Pictet. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 255 

lineage between the faunas of different ages. The fishes 
of the Palaeozoic are in no respect the ancestors of the 
reptiles of the Secondary age, nor does man descend from 
the mammals of the Tertiary age. The link b}^ which 
they are connected is of an immaterial nature, and their 
connection is to be sought in the thought of the Creator 
Himself, whose aim in forming the earth, in allowing it 
to pass through the successive changes which Geology has 
pointed out, and in creating successively all the different 
types of animals which, have passed away, was to intro- 
duce man upon the surface of the globe. Man is the end 
toward which all the animal creation has tended." 1 The 
language of Prof. Owen is equally explicit : " The recog- 
nition of an ideal exemplar in the vertebrated animals 
proves that the knowledge of such a being as man existed 
before man appeared ; for the Divine Mind which plan- 
ned the archetype also foresaw all its modifications. The 
archetype idea was manifested in the flesh long prior to 
the existence of those animal species that actually exem- 
plify it." 2 "Of the nature of the creative acts by which 
the successive races of animals were called into being, we 
are ignorant. But this we know, that as the evidence of 
unity of plan testifies to the oneness of the Creator, so the 
modifications of the plan for different modes of existence 
illustrate the benevolence of the Designer. Those struct- 
ures, moreover, which are at present incomprehensible as 
adaptations to a special end, are made comprehensible on 
a higher principle, and & final purpose is gained in rela- 
tion to human intelligence." 3 That these views are still 
held by Prof. Owen is evident from his remarks in the 
fortieth chapter of his "Anatomy of the Yertebrates : " 

1 " Agassiz and Gould's "Zoology," p. 238. 2 "On Limbs," p. 88. 

3 " On the Skeleton and' Teeth," p. 228. 



256 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

" Of all the quadrupedal servants of man, none have 
proved of more value to him, in peace or war, than the 
horse ; none have co-operated with the advanced races 
more influentially in man's destined mastery over the 
earth and its lower denizens. ... I believe the horse to 
have been predestinated and prepared for man. It may 
be a weakness ; but, if so, it is a glorious one, to discern, 
however dimly, across our finite prison-wall, evidence of 
'the Divinity that shapes our ends,' abuse the means as 
we may." 1 

Long before the appearance of man upon the earth, the 
providence of God laid up in its strata those vast treasures 
of granite, sandstone, lime, marble, coal, salt, petroleum, 
and the various metals, the product of a long succession 
of ages and revolutions, thus making an inexhaustible pro- 
vision for the necessities of man, and furnishing ample re- 
sources for the development of his genius and skill. 2 In 
the vegetable life which appeared on the globe immediate- 
ly prior to and contemporaneous with the advent of mau, 
we can recognize a providential arrangement made for 
man. In the flora of the Palaeozoic and Secondary periods 
we can not fail to observe the absence of all those plants 
which are adapted for human food. Even in the Tertiary 
epoch, which immediately precedes the Adamic or human 
period, so far as Geology reveals, there were few or no 
plants yielding the appropriate supplies for the sustentation 
of man. There are few indications of any of those vege- 
tables from which man may derive food and valuable fibre, 
and, in a word, of species which support and clothe by far 
the larger portion of the human race. " Scarcely any 
grasses appear in the list of extinct vegetation, and there 

1 "Anatomy of the Vertebrates," vol. iii. p. 790. 

2 "The Harmonies of Nature," by Dr. C. Hartwig, pp. 46, 47. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 257 

is reason to believe that the principal cereals which are 
characteristic of the human period — as barley, wheat, oats, 
rye, millet, Indian corn, and rice" — had no existence. 1 
"When the fullness of time was come, and all things 
were ready for the reception of man, then God called 
him into being, and invested him with dominion over 
nature. 

Physical geography also indicates, not only a state of 
preparation for man, but also a special adaptation of the 
fixed forms of the earth's surface for securing the perfect 
development of man according to the Divine ideal. And 
as the land which man inhabits, the food he eats, the air 
he breathes, the mountains and rivers and seas which are 
his neighbors, the skies that overshadow him, the diversi- 
ties of climate to which he is subject, and indeed all phys- 
ical conditions, exert a powerful influence upon his tastes, 
pursuits, habits, and character — we may presume that not 
only are all these conditions predetermined by God, but 
continually under his control and supervision. 

The distribution of terrestrial areas — the continents, isl- 
ands, and seas ; the disposition of the climate, soil, and 
vegetation, apparently accidental, have played an impor- 
tant part in the moral history of our race. There is a 
close relation between nature and history, between the 
earth and man. The soul of man is distinct from, but not 
totally independent of the body and of external physical 
conditions. To deny this would be to reject all the les- 
sons of experience. The relation of man to nature is not, 
however, a relation of cause and effect, but, as Cousin 
remarks, " Man and nature are two great effects which, 
coming from the same cause, bear the same characteristics, 
so that the earth and he who inhabits it, man and nature, 
1 "Typical Forms and Special Ends," R. McCosh and Dr. Dickie, p. 352. 

R 



258 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION' OF THE WORLD. 

are in perfect harmony." * " A living God," says Hitter, 
" is at the head of the physical and moral world." 2 The 
earth was created for man, not simply to be a dwelling- 
place, but a school-house 3 — made to be a theatre for the 
education, the development, and the perfection of the hu- 
man race. And as the moral and intellectual culture of 
the child is materially affected by the physical conditions 
with which he is surrounded, and as these are consequent- 
ly the subject of care and forethought on the part of the 
intelligent and prudent parent and teacher, so the external 
physical conditions of a nation exert a powerful influence 
on its intellectual and moral development, and therefore 
must be presumed to be the subject of forethought and 
providence on the part of God, " the Father of the fami- 
lies of all the earth." God has superintended the peopling 
of the earth, the dispersions and migrations of nations, 
guiding the footsteps of the "covenant, educating, and 
missionary nations" to those countries best adapted to 
their highest development. In a word, He has ordained 
the progress of empire and the course of civilization. 

Thus nature and history are the two great factors of 
Divine providence ; in their relations and harmonies we 
have a revelation of the purposes and plans of God. 4 

That geographical conditions do exert a powerful influ- 
ence on the character of nations can not be denied. "The 
bodily constitution of a people, their temperament, modes 
of life, habitations, customs, languages, and even religious 
opinions have been formed or modified under the influence 
of that magic circle of nature which surrounds them, and 

1 " History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 169. 

2 " Geographical Studies," p. 34. 

3 "Eitter, "Geographical Studies," p. 314; Guyot, "Earth and Man," 
p. 34. 

4 Bitter, " Geographical Studies," p. 34; Guyot. "Earth and Man," p. 35. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 259 

which so powerfully affects what is individual in national 
character." So that, could we fully grasp all the charac- 
teristics of a country — its position, configuration, climate, 
scenery, and natural products — we could, with tolerable ac- 
curacy, determine what are the characteristics of the peo- 
ple who inhabit it. We have discussed this topic at some 
length in "Christianity and Greek Philosophy," and shall 
here simply recall such of the general facts and principles 
as may be needed for a clear understanding of the present 
discussion. 

1. The habits and char act eristics of the dwellers in the 
Temperate Zone differ widely from those of the dwellers 
in the Torrid Zone. This is an obvious fact; and the 
causes of this difference are equally obvious to the observ- 
ant mind. In the tropical regions the powers of vegetable 
and animal life are stimulated to the highest degree, and 
here nature displays her fullest energy, her greatest variety, 
and her richest splendors. Excessive heat enfeebles and 
enervates man. It induces lassitude, dreaminess, effemi- 
nacy, and tempts to quietude and indolence. "Where na- 
ture pours her fullness into the lap of ease, forethought and 
providence are little needed. Here is none of that strug- 
gle for existence which awakens sagacity and develops in- 
dustry. Nothing calls man to that effort for the conquest 
of nature by which the intellect is aroused and the rea- 
soning faculties are developed. Consequently the mere 
life of the body, the powers of the physical nature of man, 
overmaster the faculties of the mind. The instincts pre- 
dominate over the reason. Simple spontaneity of thought 
is manifested, but little or no analytic reflection. Feel- 
ing, imagination, sentiment, predominate over intellect, 
reason, and science. In a temperate climate all is reversed. 
The alternations of heat and cold render man more vigor- 



260 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION 'OF THE WORLD. 

ous, and impart more physical tone. Where there is less 
profusion and lavishment of nature's gifts, there is more 
room and motive for industry. The change of seasons, and 
an annual period of dormancy, demand forethought and 
prudence. The preservation of life demands, not merely 
physical toil, but some degree of contrivance, and, in- 
deed, the vigorous exertion of the intellectual powers. 
And here, though nature is not prodigal of her gifts, she 
grants to industry and skill something more than the bare 
necessities of life. She allows man to lay up a store for 
the future, and furnishes some leisure for the culture of 
the mind. The active powers of man, his reason and judg- 
ment, rule his instincts, and control, more or less, his ap- 
petites and emotions. Here man becomes a careful ob- 
server of events ; he treasures up the results of experience, 
compares one fact with another, notes their relations, and 
makes new experiments to test his conclusions. Thus sci- 
ence has its birth in the Temperate Zone. 1 

2. There is a marked difference between the mental 
habits and modes of thought of the peoples who dwell in 
the interior of an immense continent and those who dwell 
on the margin of the sea. Yast continents, unbroken by 
lakes and inland seas, and extended plains where broad 
deserts and high mountain ranges separate the populations, 
are the seats of immobility. The inhabitants are isolated 
from the rest of the world, and excluded from a stimulat- 
ing and profitable intercourse with the nations of the earth. 
They have comparatively no navigation, their commerce is 
limited to the bare necessities of life, and there are no in- 
ducements to movement, to travel, and to enterprise. So- 
ciety is therefore stationary, as in China ; the habits, man- 
ners, and usages of social and civil life remain as they 

1 See Guyot, "Earth and Man," pp. 268-270. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 261 

were two thousand years ago. Infolded and imprisoned 
within the overwhelming vastness and illimitable sway oi 
nature, man is almost unconscious of his freedom and per- 
sonality. Pie surrenders himself to the disposal of a mys- 
terious " fate," and yields readily to the absolute control 
of rulers who are regarded as of supernatural origin and 
endowed with superhuman powers. The forms of govern- 
ment remain unchanged from age to age, and the state is 
the reign of fixed and inexorable laws — " The laws of the 
Medes and Persians are unalterable." The rights of the 
person are scarcely recognized, and the individual is lost 
in the mass. 

Extended border -lands on the margin of great rivers 
and inland seas are, on the contrary, the theatre of move- 
.rnent, activity, and life. Here man is set free from the 
bondage imposed by the overpowering magnitude and 
vastness of continental and oceanic forms. Here industry 
is not stationary, but progressive ; and commerce thrives 
because the rivers and inland seas furnish the means of 
easy transit, and the opportunity for a free interchange of 
commodities. Along with the exchange of commodities 
there will be an exchange of ideas, because ideas flow 
alono; the channels of commerce. Here also the arts will 
be cultivated, first for purposes of gain, and subsequently 
for the gratification of taste. And, where there is freedom 
of movement, where there is creative industry, where nat- 
ure is subjugated by man, the idea of personal liberty will 
be developed, and the rights of the individual will be re- 
garded. These ideas of personal liberty and rights will 
become incorporated with the laws and institutions of so- 
ciety, and the government will tend toward a democracy. 
Finally, this freedom of movement and action will engen- 
der freedom of thought. Eeflection will commence, the 



262 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION 'OF THE WORLD. 

speculative and critical spirit will arise, and philosophy 
will be born. 1 

3. There is also an acknowledged difference between the 
mental character of the inhabitants of a bright and sunny 
climate who breathe an elastic atmosphere, and are sur- 
rounded by the most inspiring scenery, and that of the 
people who dwell under a gray and sombre sky, and daily 
look upon the more stem and rugged aspects of nature. 
The dwellers in the former climate are ardent, vivacious, 
and mercurial ; the inhabitants of the latter are slow, de- 
liberate, persistent, and conservative. One nation will be 
speculative, enamored of plausible hypotheses, and prone 
to hasty and brilliant generalization; the other will be 
practical, intolerant of hypotheses, and clamorous for facts 
and logical inferences from facts. In the former climate 
the fine arts will be enthusiastically cultivated, and ele- 
gance and taste, and all that is graceful in sentiment and 
action, will find a congenial home ; in the latter, the exact 
sciences and the useful arts will be cultivated with persist- 
ence and zeal. Under the former conditions, a religion of 
poetry, of sentiment, of artistic display and imposing cere- 
monial, will sway the popular mind ; under the latter, a 
religion of personal duty and purity, of social righteous- 
ness, of active beneficence, and of universal charity, will 
command respect. 

These principles constitute what may be designated the 
statics of history — the more or less stable and permanent 
conditions under which the living forces of humanity are 
developed. 

The dynamics of history are the fundamental powers 
and rational ideas of human nature. There are certain 
primary ideas of the reason which are revealed in the uni- 

1 Cousin, " History of Philosophy," vol. i. pp. 169-170. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 263 

versal consciousness of our race under the conditions of 
experience — the exterior conditions of physical nature and 
sensational life. Such are the ideas of substance and 
cause, of unity and infinity, which govern all the processes 
of discursive thought, and lead us to the recognition of 
the uncreated and unconditioned Being; such the ideas 
of right, of duty, of accountability, and of retribution 
which regulate all the conceptions we form of our rela- 
tions to other moral beings, and constitute morality / such 
the ideas of order, proportion, and harmony which preside 
in the realm of art, and constitute the beau-ideal of aesthet- 
ics; such the ideas of God, the soul, and immortality 
which rule in the domain of religion, and constitute man 
a religious being. In addition to these, there are the pow- 
ers of observation, of abstraction, of generalization, of in- 
ference, the capacity of symbolic conception and expres- 
sion, the faculty of creative imagination, the powers of 
invention, of foresight, and of scientific prevision. These 
are the living forces of humanity, fundamentally the same 
under all circumstances, but modified in their intensity 
and development by geographical, climatal, and scenic 
conditions. The providential adjustment and harmonious 
relation of the exterior conditions with the inherent pow- 
ers of humanity is the problem of history. 

Before attempting to trace the hand of Divine provi- 
dence in the original location and subsequent migrations 
of the historic races, let us briefly reproduce the sentences 
which express the conditions most favorable to the devel- 
opment and perfection of humanity. 1. While the trop- 
ical climate of Southern Asia, of Africa, and of South 
America is unfavorable to the highest intellectual and 
moral development, the temperate climate of Western 
Asia, of Europe, and of Korth America is peculiarly adapt- 



264 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ed to minister to the advancement and perfection of the 
human race. 2. The massive, unbroken continents of the 
South, shut in by immense oceans and impassable mount- 
ain ranges, are the seats of immobility and the home of 
despotic power; but the deeply indented and elaborately 
articulated continents of the North, with their inland seas 
and large navigable rivers, are the theatre of activity, of 
progress, and of liberty. 3. The sunny skies and glowing 
landscapes and inspiring scenery of the south of Europe 
are most congenial to poetry and music, and painting and 
sculpture, and all that is graceful in expression and action ; 
the deeper tone and sterner features of the northern por- 
tion of Europe, " whose skies are sombre, and whose mount- 
ains are rugged and gray," determine it to be the home 
of practical industry and useful arts, of benevolent enter- 
prises and philanthropic deeds. Bearing in mind these 
principles, we turn to history in the belief that we shall 
find that Divine providence has at successive periods placed 
the historic races in such geographical relations and amid 
such physical conditions as have been most favorable to 
their intellectual and moral development. 

1. The first historic fact to which we would now direct 
attention is that the human race really commenced its his- 
tory in the ?nidst of the continents of the Temperate Zone. 
Western Asia was unquestionably the cradle of the hu- 
man race, the grand centre whence the different families 
or races commenced their migrations. 

Whatever views may be entertained of the doctrine sup- 
posed to be taught in Gen. i.-iv. that the whole human 
race originally descended from a single pair, or whatever 
method of interpretation in regard to that ancient docu- 
ment may finally .prevail — even should we adopt the theory 
of Dr. McCausland 1 that the Biblical account is concerned 

1 "Adam and the Adnmites." 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 265 

only with the origin of a covenant and redemptive race 
(the Adamite or Edenic race), which was to be the instruct- 
or and benefactor of the pre-Adamite races — there can be 
no question that the sacred historian traces the source of 
the great historic nations to the family of Noah (Gen. ix. 
19). Whatever difficulties there may be in determining 
the site of Eden — and they are confessedly great, if not 
insurmountable — there is no difficulty in locating the sec- 
ond geographical centre from whence the great historic 
races departed to overspread- the earth. Ararat is, no 
doubt, in its Biblical import, the Armenian highlands, the 
lofty plateau which overlooks the plains of the Araxes on 
the north and Mesopotamia on the south. This " Arme- 
nian plateau stands equidistant from the Euxine and the 
Caspian seas on the north, and between the Persian Gulf 
and the Mediterranean Sea on the south. With the first 
it is connected by the Acampsis, with the second by the 
Araxes, with the third by the Tigris and the Euphrates, 
the latter of which serves as an outlet toward the coun- 
tries on the Mediterranean coast. These seas were the 
highways of primitive colonization, and the plains water- 
ed by these rivers were the seats of the most powerful na- 
tions of antiquity' — the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the 
Medes, and the Colchians. Viewed with reference to 
the dispersion of the nations, Armenia is the true o/x- 
(j)ci\og — the middle part — of the earth; and it is a sig- 
nificant fact that at the present day Ararat is the great 
boundary - stone between the empires of Russia, Turkey, 
and Persia." 1 

The Scripture account, which certainly authorizes us to 
fix upon the highlands of Armenia as the new centre 
whence the descendants of Noah went forth to people the 

1 Article "Ararat," in Smith's Dictionary. 



266 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

earth, is confirmed by the most ancient traditions and the 
most reliable historic records. Josephus tells us there was 
in Armenia a city which, was called ' 'Att o J3 ari) piov — the 
Place of Descent 1 — "for the ark being saved in that place, 
its remains are shown by the inhabitants to this day." 2 
He further adds that "all the writers of the barbarian 
histories make mention of the flood, and of this ark, among 
whom is Berosus, the Chaldsean, 3 who, when he goes on to 
describe the circumstances of the flood, remarks, ' it is said 
there is still some part oi this ship in Armenia, at the 
mountain of the Cordyseans ;' Hieronymus, the Egyptian, 
who wrote the Phoenician antiquities, and Manases, and in- 
deed a great many others, also make mention of the same. 
Nay, Nicholas of Damascus, in his ninety -sixth book, 
hath a particular relation about them, where he speaks 
thus : ' There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Min- 
yas, called Baris, upon which, it is reported, . . . that one 
who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top 
of it, and that the remains of the timber were a great 
while preserved.' " 4 

This concurrent testimony of sacred and profane his- 
tory, which designates Western Asia as the cradle of the 
historic nations, has received additional confirmation from 

1 It is called in Ptolemy Naxuana, and by Moses Chorenensis, the Ar- 
menian historian, Idsheuan, but at the place itself Nachidsheuan, which sig- 
nifies "the first place of descent." See Whiston's note on p. 87, vol. i. of 
Josephus. 

2 "Antiquities," bk. i. chap. iii. § 5. 

3 Ibid. bk. i. chap. iii. § 6. Scaliger was the first to draw the attention 
of scholars to the writings of Berosus. In his work " De Emendatione Tem- 
porum" he has collected his fragments, and vindicated their authenticity. 
Berosus is always quoted with respect by English divines, and Niebuhr has 
sustained his claims to be regarded as a reliable authority. In more than 
one place he speaks of Armenia as the resting-place of the ark. See Raw- 
linson's " Historical Evidences," p. 63, and note liii. 

4 "Antiquities," bk. i. chap. iii. § G. , 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 267 

the researches of modern ethnologists and philologists. In 
the tenth chapter of Genesis, the sacred historian sketches 
the nations of the earth at his time of writing, indicates 
their ethnic affinities, and marks to some extent their 
geographical positions. The professor of ancient history 
in the University of Oxford, George Eawlinson, re- 
marks that " the Toldoth Beni Noah (the Generations of 
Noah) has excited the admiration of modern ethnologists, 
who continually find in it the anticipations of their great- 
est discoveries." 1 Sir Henry Rawlinson assures us that 
" the Toldoth Beni Noah is undoubtedly the most authen- 
tic record we possess of the affiliations of the human race 
which sprang from the triple stock of the Noachidse." 2 
The same distinguished Oriental scholar in an essay " On 
the Ethnic Affinities of the Nations of Western Asia," f ur- 

1 "For instance, in the very second verse, the great discovery of Schlegel, 
which the word Indo-European embodies— the affinity of the principal na- 
tions of Europe with the Ayran or Indo-Persic stock — is sufficiently indi- 
cated by the conjunction of the Madai or Medes (whose native name is Mada) 
with Gomer of the Cymry, and Javan of the Ionians. Again, one of the 
most recent and unexpected results of modern linguistic inquiry is the proof 
which it has furnished of an ethnic connection between the Ethiopians or 
Cushites, who adjoined on Egypt, and the primitive inhabitants of Baby- 
lonia; a connection which was positively denied by an eminent ethnologist 
only a few years ago, but which has now been sufficiently established from 
the cuneiform monuments. In the tenth chapter of Genesis (vers. 8-10) we 
find this truth thus briefly stated : ' And Cush begat Nimrod, ' the ' beginning 
of whose kingdom was Babel' (ver. 11). So we have had it recently made 
evident from the same monuments that ' out of that land went forth Asshur, 
and builded Xineveh ' — or that the Semitic Assyrians proceeded from Baby- 
lonia and founded Nineveh long after the Cushite foundation of Babylon. 
Again, the Hamitic descent of the early inhabitants of Canaan, which had 
often been called in question, has recently come to be looked upon as almost 
certain, apart from the evidence of Scripture; and the double mention of 
Sheba, both among the sons of Ham, and also among those of Shem (vers. 
7 and 28), has been illustrated by the discovery that there are two races 
of Arabs — one (the Joktanian) Semitic, the other (the Himyaric) Cushite or 
Ethiopic." — Kawlinson's "Historical Evidences," pp. 71, 72. 

2 Asiatic Society's Journal, vol. xv. 



268 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ther remarks : " In Western Asia, the cradle of the human 
race, the several ethnic branches of the human family were 
more closely intermingled and more evenly balanced than 
in any other portion of the ancient world. Semitic, Indo- 
European, and Tatar or Turanian races not only divided 
among them this portion of the earth's surface, but lay in- 
terspersed and confused upon it in a most remarkable en- 
tanglement. It is symptomatic of this curious intermixt- 
ure that the Persian monarchs, when they wished to com- 
municate to their Asiatic subjects in such a way that it 
should be generally intelligible, had to put it out not only 
in three different languages, but in three languages be- 
longing to the three principal divisions of human speech. 
Hence the trilingual inscriptions of Behistun, Persepolis, 
etc., which consist of an Indo-European, a Tatar, and a 
Semitic column." 1 

Thus do all the varied lines of evidence proceeding from 
history, ethnology, and philology converge upon Western 
Asia as the cradle of the human race — the centre from 
which the families of mankind departed to people the 
earth; and we are constrained to regard the early pop- 
ulations of that region as furnishing the typical standard 
or average sample of our species. 

Proceeding from a purely zoological stand-point, we 
should be led to an opposite conclusion. Looking to the 
general phenomena of the geographical distribution of an- 
imals, and the natural rather than the artificial conditions 
of human existence, and arguing solely on naturalistic 
grounds, we should be constrained to place the centre of 
our race in the tropics ; and of the intertropical regions 
those which are the habitat of the anthropoid (or anthro- 
pomorphic) ape, as Western Africa and the southern ex- 

1 Rawlinson's "Plerodotus," vol. i. p. 523. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 269 

tremity of Asia. In the protoplasts of his species the mere 
zoologist sees but so many naked bipeds, with the capabil- 
ities, indeed, of working out for their future behoof the es- 
sentials of clothing, the use of fire, and the like, but in the 
first instance unfit for any climate except the mildest, and 
incapable of sustenance on any soil except the most lux- 
uriant. He consequently fixes upon the tropics as the 
cradle of our race ; and those who assume the lineal de- 
scent of the human species from the quadrumana fix upon 
those intertropical points which are the habitats of the 
anthropomorphic apes. 

The law which governs the distribution and development 
of vegetable and animal life would also lead us to Hx upon 
the tropical regions as the geographical centre of our race. 
That law may be thus stated : The degree of perfection of 
the types of life, and the diversity and number of species, 
are proportional to the intensity of heat. In this prog- 
ress, as Humboldt has remarked, we find organic life and 
vigor gradually augmenting with the increase of temper- 
ature. And the number of species increases as we ap- 
proach the equator, and decreases as we retire from it. 1 

In the Frigid Zone life seems almost extinguished dur- 
ing the greater part of the year by the rigors of an al- 
most perpetual winter. The vegetation of the polar re- 
gions is stunted, dull, and monotonous in color, and inad- 
equate to sustain animal life. The plains are covered with 
mosses and lichens, and here and there a few herbs and 
shrubs (saxifrages, gentians, papaver, etc.), but no stately 
forest trees. In short, the general characteristic of these 
cold regions is the preponderance of cryptogamous plants. 
In the Temperate Zone we have a marked superiority in 
vegetable life. Here we have grassy pastures, cerealia, 

1 " Cosmos," vol. i. p. 348. 



270 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and dicotyledonous trees — the oak, ash, beech, maple, chest- 
nut, walnut, the apple, pear, plum, etc. The number of 
genera and species is greatly increased, and the superior 
types acquire a fuller development. The preponderance 
of phanerogamous plants, the richer coloring, and the ap- 
pearance of evergreen trees, are the signs of an immense 
progress. But the soft tints, the medium forms, and the 
wintry sleep extending through half the year, clearly in- 
dicate % that the perfection of physical nature is not at- 
tained. 1 It is in the heat of the Torrid Zone where nat- 
ure puts forth all her energy, and displays her greatest re- 
sources. " The cryptogamous plants attain, in arborescent 
forms, the proportions of our forest trees. The grasses 
which we know in our climates only under the humble 
forms they put on in our fields, rise, in the elegant and 
majestic bamboo, to the height of sixty or seventy feet. 
A single tree is a garden, wherein a hundred different 
plants intertwine their branches, and display their brilliant 
flowers on a ground of verdure, where their varied hues 
and forms of leaves are richly blended." And here the 
perfection of vegetable life is attained in the graceful 
palms which stand at the head and crown the vegetable 
kingdom. This is the region of a perpetual summer, where 
nature makes ample provision for the support of animal 
life, and the date, the cocoa-nut, the banana, the plantain, 
the sugar-cane, the pine-apple, supply all the wants of un- 
civilized man. 

The same gradation is marked in the animal kingdom. 
The most characteristic feature of the arctic fauna is its 
dull uniformity. The species are few in number, their 
forms are regular, and their tints are dusky as the north- 

1 Article "Botany," Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. v.; also "Geographical 
Botany ;" and Guyot, "Earth and Man," p. 251. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 271 

era heavens. The most conspicuous animals are the rein- 
deer, the white bear, and the various seals ; but the most 
important are the whales, which rank lowest of all the 
mammals. The preponderance of marine animals clear- 
ly indicates an inferior development. The faunas of the 
temperate regions are much more varied than in the Arc- 
tic Zone. Instead of consisting mainly of aquatic tribes, 
we have a considerable number of terrestrial animals of 
graceful form, animated appearance, and varied coloring, 
though less brilliant than those found in tropical regions. 
It is in the tropics that animal life attains its highest 
development. The boundless variety of species, the rich- 
ness of the colors, the diversity of forms, the size and 
strength of the great pachyderms that people the forests 
and rivers, the fleetness and vigor of the ferocious deni- 
zens of the jungle and the plain, all attest that this is the 
privileged zone. And here only are found the quadru- 
manae, which stand at the head of the animal kingdom. 

Such, then, is clearly the law of the physical world. 
" Nature goes on adding perfection to perfection from the 
polar regions to the Temperate Zone, and from the Temper- 
ate Zone to the region of the greatest heat." Animal life 
increases in strength and development; the types are im- 
proved ; intelligence enlarges ; the form approaches near- 
er the human figure ; the ourang-outang occasionally stands 
erect; and the presence of the mastoid and styloid proc- 
esses, the development of the heel-bone, and the form of 
the pelvis, together with the shape of the ears and a high- 
er frontal development, give the gorilla a startling resem- 
blance to man. Following, then, the ascending series (es- 
pecially if man be regarded as the lineal descendant of 
the anthropomorphic apes), we might reasonably suppose 
that here would be found the proper home and habitat of 



272 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION' OF THE WORLD. 

man, and that the tropical man would be the highest type 
of humanity, and, physically speaking, the most beautiful 
of the species. 

But this, as every one knows, is not the case. While 
all the types of plants and of animals go on increasing in 
perfection from the polar to the equatorial regions in pro- 
portion to the increase of temperature, " man presents to 
our view his purest, his most perfect type at the very cen- 
tre of the temperate continents, at the centre of Asia-Eu- 
rope, in the "region of Iran, of Armenia, and of the Cau- 
casus; and, departing from this geographical centre in the 
three grand directions of the lands, the types gradually 
lose the beauty of their forms in proportion to their dis- 
tance, even to the extreme points of the southern conti- 
nents, where we find the most deformed and [physically] 
degenerated races, and the lowest in the scale of hu- 
manity." x 

The distribution of the human race over the face of the 
earth has thus been governed by a different law from that 
which has governed the distribution of plants and ani- 
mals. 

In the latter case, the degree of perfection of the types 
is exactly proportional to the intensity of heat and other 
material conditions favorable to the development of phys- 
ical life. This is the law of a physical order. 

In the former case, in man, the degree of perfection of 
the types is in proportion to the degree of intellectual and 
moral improvement, and to the physical conditions favor- 
able to intellectual and moral development. This is the 
law of a moral order. 

This difference between the two laws has its ground and 
reason in the essential difference between the nature and 

1 Guyot, " Earth and Man," p. 255. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 273 

destination of these different orders of being. The plant 
and the animal are not destined to become a different 
thing from what they already are. The end of their ex- 
istence is already attained. The development of each in- 
dividual is bound to an immutable necessity of nature. 
Therefore vegetable life and organization are ceaselessly 
uniform ; there are always the same cellular structures and 
the same morphological forms. Unreasoning and instinct- 
ive life never leaves its sphere. The beaver builds its 
dam, lives, and dies, just as it did six thousand years ago. 
The bee builds the same hexagonal cell she built before 
the flood. There is an all-pervading order in the physical 
world. But with man it is quite otherwise. Man, cre- 
ated in the image of God, is a free moral being. He is 
not solely under the dominion of mere nature-conditions, 
and he is therefore a progressive being. The physical 
man is not the true man ; the body is not an end, but a 
means. There is another man — the intellectual, the mor- 
al, the spiritual man — which grows up with the body, and 
to which the physical man is a servant and minister. The 
unfolding, the development, the perfection of this spirit- 
ual nature is the grand end of man. This development 
can only take place under freedom ; this nature be unfold- 
ed only by education ; the maturity and the perfection of 
man secured only by the exercise and discipline of his 
spiritual powers. 1 

Who does not see a plan, a purpose, a Providence in 
this fact that the cradle of the human race was placed in 
the midst of the continents of the north and not at the 
centre of the tropical regions ? The balmy but enervat- 
ing atmosphere of the equatorial regions would have lulled 

1 Guyot, "Earth and Man," pp. 264, 265; Wallace, "On Natural Selec- 
tion," pp. 324-6; Martineau, "Essays," 1st Series, p. 126. 



274 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

man to sleep, and be would have made no progress. With 
an abundant supply for his natural wants, there would have 
been no motive to industry, to enterprise, and to the de- 
velopment of his intellectual powers. Unable to endure 
the rigors of a colder climate, and to live on a less luxu- 
riant soil, he could not have been induced to migrate to 
less favorable regions, and, crowded on a narrow area, the 
race must have been finally exterminated. But planted in 
the Temperate Zone, in the midst of the continents of the 
North, so well adapted by their forms, their highly articu- 
lated peninsulas, and their climate to stimulate the active 
powers of man, to promote enterprise, to favor commerce, 
and hasten individual development and social organization, 
he was surrounded by conditions most favorable to the ful- 
fillment of his destiny. 

It is also worthy of being noted that Western Asia was 
not only the geographical centre of the human race, but 
also the grand centre of religious light — the cradle of 
man's spiritual nature. It was here in the midst of the 
six great nations of antiquity — the Babylonians, the Assyr- 
ians, Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians — that 
for ages " the living oracles " proclaimed the " Truth of 
God," and patriarchs and prophets and seers were re- 
ceived into intercourse with the higher world. And it 
was in Palestine, the centre of the three continents of the 
Old World, and near S^ve great seas — the highways of the 
world's travel and commerce — that Jesus of Nazareth taught 
"the glad tidings of great joy" for the nations, and sent 
forth his apostles " into all the world to preach that Gospel 
to every creature." 

2. Another important fact which history enables us very 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 275 

distinctly to recognize is that those epochs of civilization 
which represent the highest degree of culture attained by 
man at different periods in his history have not succeeded 
one another in the same place, but have passed from one 
country to another. 

It is an undoubted historic fact, as we have already seen, 
that Asia was the cradle of the human race. Western 
Asia is the theatre of the earliest civilization of which we 
have any historic records. Then a newer and higher 
form appears on the peninsula of Greece. The centre 
of civilization again changes place, and Rome embraces 
and improves upon that of the ancient world. Then 
passing the Alps, still further to the west, it spreads over 
France and Germany and the British Isles, and assumes 
a nobler form ; and finally it crosses the Atlantic Ocean, 
and develops its highest type in the New World. This 
order may be called the geographical march of civiliza- 
tion. 

In the principle we enounced at the opening of this 
chapter, that the earth is the school-house of man — its 
highest function being to aid in his intellectual and moral 
training, and furnish the conditions in which he may ful- 
fill his noble destiny — we can recognize at once the reason 
and the law of this remarkable progression. And as no 
single continent furnishes all the conditions necessary to 
the complete development of man, and each of the three 
northern continents, by virtue of its structure and climate 
and physical conditions, has a special function to fulfill 
in the education of mankind, so God, in his providence, 
lias led the human family from east to west, over the con- 
tinents of the Temperate Zone, in order to secure the edu- 
cation, the moral advancement, and the final perfection of 
our race. 



276 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The education of the race has, no doubt, proceeded 
very much in the same manner as the education of the in- 
dividual. The general law observable in the development 
of one human mind may be traced in the development of 
humanity as a whole. That which takes place on the lim- 
ited field of individual consciousness may also be found 
upon the larger field of universal consciousness, which is 
the theatre of history ; and as one epoch succeeds another 
in the progress of the individual, so must it be in the prog- 
ress of nations. What, then, are the clear and obvious 
stages in the development of the human mind? Do we 
not clearly recognize the following order ? 

1. The period of submission to absolute authority. This 
is the first condition of infancy. The child is controlled 
absolutely by the will of the parent. It is almost passive 
amid surrounding conditions, and parental authority is its 
only law of movement and action. 

2. The discipline of the conscience. This is the era of 
childhood. The ideas of the right and the good are de- 
veloped in the mind. An internal law of duty begins to 
reveal itself. The child begins to discriminate between 
what he ought and ought not to do. And in the educa- 
tion of the child the object of a wise and virtuous parent 
is to strengthen this tendency by urging him to act upon 
these ideas. 

3. The development of personal liberty — that is, of in- 
dependent thought and self -originated action. This is the 
period of youth. The youth passes from the control of 
his parents and teachers, and begins to think and act for 
himself. 

4. The training and discipline of the will under socicd 
law — that is, the voluntary obedience to laws imposed by 
society, submission to regulations imposed for the public 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 277 

good. This is the period of manhood. The young man 
passes into society, he becomes a member of the body pol- 
itic, and freely acts, not simply as an individual, but as a 
member of a corporation and of a state. 

5. The development of active philanthropy. The man 
advances beyond the claims of social law, and acts from 
the promptings of love and good-will toward all men. 
Passing through all the varied stages in the progressive 
development of human character, and retaining the results 
of each, he becomes the perfect man. 

And now it will be promptly recognized that this has 
been the order of progress in humanity as a whole — that 
is, the progress of history and of civilization. The first 
corresponds with Oriental, the second with Hebrew, the 
third with Greek, the fourth with Roman, and the last 
with Christian civilization. 

It will also be observed that each epoch in the develop- 
ment of the individual has demanded new conditions, and 
has taken place in a new sphere. The first stage in the 
development of individual character is infoldment in the 
arms of the parent. He is still held, as it were, within the 
circle of maternal life. He is bewildered by the vastness 
and variety of external nature, and he sinks back into his 
mother's arms. The second sphere is in the bosom of the 
family and amid the scenes of domestic life, where he rec- 
ognizes relations and becomes conscious of duties. The 
third is in the school and the outer world, where thought 
awakens, and, enjoying more freedom of movement, he be- 
comes more conscious of his personal liberty. The fourth 
is in society, the state, the arena of political life, where his 
movements must be regulated by law ; and the pursuit of 
his own pleasure or aggrandizement must not interfere 
with the rights of his fellow-man. The fifth and last is 



278 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

in the church, the home of religious life, where he is call- 
ed to ascend from the region of mere law to that of holy 
love. So also each epoch in the development of human- 
ity has had its separate sphere and its new conditions, first 
in Asia proper, next in Palestine, on the borders of the 
Mediterranean Sea, then on the peninsula of Greece, then 
in Italy, and lastly in Continental Europe, England, and 
America. 

1. Asia, as we have seen, was the cradle of the race. 
Here, in the infancy of humanity, Oriental Civilization 
dawns. Amid the extended plains and lofty mountains 
of Asia, those stupendous and massive forms of Oriental 
nature, man felt himself absolutely dependent. To the 
river he looked as the fertilizer of the soil ; to the animal 
which roamed in the desert, and the almost spontaneous 
vegetation of the earth, for his food ; to the sun, as the 
fountain of light and heat, the giver of life and death. 1 
He was environed and overpowered by nature. Almost 
unconscious of his own freedom, he lay in her bosom, as 
the child reposes in the arms of its mother. Underlying 
all the massive forms of Oriental nature he recognized an 
invisible Power and Presence, and he worshiped nature 
as an impersonation of God. Every thing inspired him 
with the sense of the Infinite, the consciousness of de- 
pendence on an absolute Will. The patriarchal govern- 
ment, imposed by nature, restrained his personal liberty. 
His property and life were at the disposal of his chief — 
an absolute autocrat, who exercised over him an unlim- 
ited power. Oriental civilization unquestionably repre- 
sents the infancy of man. 

2. In Hebrew civilization we have, as an especial feat- 
ure, the discipline of the conscience. The child -man 

1 Guyot, "Earth and Man," p. 304. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 279 

comes more directly under the power of moral culture. 
The government and discipline to which he is now sub- 
jected aim to develop in his mind the idea of the just, the 
right, the pure. He is receiving instruction in what he 
ought and ought not to do. His conceptions of the moral 
character of God are to be enlarged, the idea especially of 
the holiness of God is to be developed in his mind through 
the medium of material symbols and religious rites. The 
call of Abraham sets forth at once the central lesson of 
faith in an unseen personal God. The history of the pa- 
triarchs brings into clearer light the sovereignty of God 
as opposed to the mere dominion of nature and fate. A 
nation grows up in presence of Egyptian culture, and after 
the purpose of God in the discipline of Egypt is accom- 
plished, they are led into the wilderness, and God now re- 
veals Himself as a Lawgiver and Judge, and a ritual is 
given which teaches at once the holiness of God and the 
exceeding sinfulness of sin. 1 

For the achievement of this object a new sphere is de- 
manded — the seclusion and isolation of family life. Ac- 
cordingly Abraham was called to leave Chaldsea, the scene 
of Oriental civilization, and led into Canaan, that he might 
become the father of a great nation, and the source of a 
new and better civilization. The mountainous region of 
Palestine was admirably fitted to be the theatre of this 
new civilization. Xo other land on the globe was so pe- 
culiarly fitted to fulfill this office. The northern half of 
Syria was not so favorable a locality; for traversed as it 
was by the great highway from Asia Minor to Assyria, it 
was subject to the influence of foreign travel from the 
earliest times. But Palestine lay surrounded by populous 

1 See Article "Philosophy," in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible." See 
also Shairp, "Culture and Religion," pp. 40-46. 



280 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

countries, and yet isolated from them. In the midst of the 
six great nations of antiquity — the Babylonians, the Assyri- 
ans, the Medes, Persians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians — it was 
separated from them all. 1 Thus secluded and isolated from 
the rest of mankind, the Hebrews dwelt alone as one great 
family. The first form of government was a patriarchy 
— the father of the family and of the tribe being the ruler. 
The second was a theocracy, in which God, the Father of 
the families of all the earth, becomes the immediate rider. 
The third was a monarchy— the government of a man ap- 
pointed and sustained in his authority by God. And the 
history of this nation is little else than one of instruction, 
discipline, and chastisement — a tutelage in which the peo- 
ple were under law and not under grace. The Hebrew 
civilization represents the childhood of humanity. 

And the lessons here taught were not lost to the race. 
They were carried to Assyria and Babylonia during the 
period of the two captivities ; and in the colonies which 
were founded in Asia Minor, Pome, and Alexandria the 
influence exerted by Judaism was considerably greater 
than that which was exerted upon it. The union of Juda- 
ism and Platonism is fully represented in Philo the Alex- 
andrian Jew. 

3. In Grecian civilization we have the development of 
personal freedom of thought and action. The Divine 
discipline of the Jews, as we have seen, was essentially a 
moral discipline — a discipline of the conscience. This, 

1 "Palestine was from the beginning an isolated land, as Israel was an 
isolated people, and therefore for thousands of years both have been unin- 
telligible to the world at large. No great highway led through Palestine 
from people to people ; all passed by it, and not over it ; all its coast was 
without favorable harbors. No one of the pagan states of antiquity could 
come into close geographical, mercantile, political, and religious relations 
with a people existing under the sway of Jehovah." — Hitter, "Geograph- 
ical Studies," p. 43. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 281 

however, was not a complete discipline of our whole 
nature. The reason demands culture as well as the con- 
science. The process and the issue in the two cases were 
widely different, but they were in some sense complement- 
ary ; and the one succeeds the other in the order of time. 
The Divine kingdom of the Jews was just overthrown 
when free speculation arose in the Ionian colonies of Asia; 
and the teaching of the last prophet nearly synchronizes 
with the death of Socrates. 1 

This new civilization could not be achieved on the con- 
tinent of Asia, and therefore a new theatre is prepared. 
" Europe may be called a continuation of Central Asia. 
It surpasses its Oriental neighbor in the advantage of hav- 
ing no internal mountain barrier to divide its north and 
south. Thus Europe has been able to develop itself more 
independently and freely in consequence of the number of 
its peninsular forms. . . . The three characteristic features 
in the formation of Europe that are the physical grounds 
of the development of its nations are its large extent of 
seaboard, its peninsular forms, and the number of its isl- 
ands." 2 On the peninsula of Greece, on the shores of the 
yEgean and Ionian seas, there was freedom of movement, 
facility of intercourse with the surrounding nations, and 
inducements to maritime enterprise. These conditions 
were undoubtedly favorable to a higher development. 
iC The inland sea, the magnificent river," says Cousin, " is 
the natural symbol of movement" These represent the 
activity of nature, and they become natural centres of 
progress. The sea is the highway of commerce, and 
commerce is the grand channel of ideas, the medium 
through which the knowledge acquired by one people can 

1 Article "Philosophy," in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible." 

2 Eitter, " Geographical Studies," pp. 3-12, 343. 



282 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

flow readily into other lands. Amid such conditions the 
mind awakes to activity, and the period of youth com- 
mences. Awakening thought is first directed to the outer 
world, and attempts an explanation of its phenomena. 
Greek philosophy thus becomes, at its first appearance, a 
philosophy of nature, and the Ionian school was a school 
of physicists. Here the great names which appear at 
the dawn of mental activity are Thales, Anaximander, 
Anaximenes, Heraclites, and Diogenes. From the study 
of nature the human race advances to the study of man. 
The new school is a school of moral and mental philoso- 
phy, or, more correctly, of psychology and ethics, adorned 
by such immortal names as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. 
In Greece, philosophy, poetry, eloquence, the fine arts, were 
extensively cultivated. As this was an age of great activ- 
ity of thought, so it was also an age of great political free- 
dom. The government was in many respects a govern- 
ment of the people, a democracy. " Every thing, in fact, 
in Greece bears evidence of the preponderance of human 
personality, and the energy of individual character." 1 
Grecian civilization represents the youth of humanity. 

The results of this culture were carried to other lands 
by the conquests of Alexander, and subsequently by the 
conquering Romans. The poets, the architects, the sculp- 
tors, the historians, the philosophers of Greece, are still the 
guides and models of the men of thought and taste in all 
cultivated nations. The Greek is still, in a peculiar sense, 
the teacher of the world. 

4. In Roman civilization we have the discipline of the 
will under social and civil law, the more perfect organiza- 
tion of society and of government, the development of the 
science of jurisprudence. 

1 Guyot, "Earth and Man," p. 307. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 2S3 

This social and political organization was a new work, a 
higher civilization, and it demanded a new and, in fact, a 
larger sphere. The centre of the civilized world now 
changes place, and, moving westward, establishes itself 
in the peninsula of Italy. By successive conquests its 
circumference enlarges, and finally it embraces at once 
the South and the East and the West. The place which 
Rome occupied, in the very middle of the basin of the 
Mediterranean Sea, seemed to foreshadow that she was 
destined to become the metropolis of all the civilized na- 
tions who dwelt upon its shores. Rome extended its con- 
quests to Spain, Gaul, Britain, Illyria, Greece, Asia Minor, 
Egypt, Africa, and the islands of the Mediterranean — over, 
in fact, six hundred thousand square leagues of the most 
fertile country; and all but realized the dream of the 
world's great conquerors — a universal empire. It was de- 
fended by a regular army of five hundred thousand men, 
ranged in the order of the famous legions, which consti- 
tuted the most effective military organization known. 
The government of an empire of such vast proportions 
and diversity of populations demanded the greatest polit- 
ical skill. To establish durable ties between these diverse 
peoples, and to combine in the same social network all 
the civilized nations of the world, demanded the highest 
legislative talent, and gave birth to the science of juris- 
prudence, which, next to that of theology, is the most im- 
portant and useful to man. The inability of the Greek to 
achieve this great work is clearly evinced by the terrible 
Peloponnesian War and the lamentable history of the em- 
pire of Alexander and his successors. Greece represents 
individuality ; Rome, association, unity, and, in some de- 
gree, the equality of all races of men. 

This was unquestionably a marvelous development : "In 



284 THE T HEIST IC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

public law, the extension, step by step, through many a 
civil commotion, of the full rights of citizenship from the 
narrow circle of a few score of favored families to the en- 
tire sphere of the free subjects of the empire ; in private 
law, the equal communication among various classes of the 
rights of property and dominion over the national soil; 
the abolition of territorial privileges ; the readjustment, by 
gradual and peaceful manipulation, of the cadastral map 
of the empire ; the relaxation, by slow and experimental 
process, of the patriarchal authority of the head of the 
family ; of the father over the son, whom at first he might 
punish, sell, or slay ; of the husband over the wife, whom 
at first he received from her parents as the spoil of his own 
spear, and ruled as the chattel he had plundered; 1 of the 
master over the slave, absolute at first, final and irrespon- 
sible to law, custom, or conscience ; the gradual replace- 
ment of the strictly national and tribal ideas on these sub- 
jects by views of right, justice, and virtue to mankind in 
general; the slow but constant growth of principles of 
natural and universal law, and their application, search- 
ingly and thoroughly, to every subject of jurisprudence, 
and to all the dealings of man with man." 2 

This vast Roman Empire combined all the elements of 
civilization characteristic of former periods. The philoso- 
pher, the lawyer, and the statesman were united in the per- 
son of her great men, as Cicero and Cato, and sometimes 
also the warrior, as in the case of the first of the Caesars. The 
days of the Roman Republic present the most brilliant so- 
cial and political epoch in the history of the ancient world. 
The life of a Roman citizen was emphatically a public life. 

1 ''The conjugal tie was held sacred, and polygamy prohibited." — De 
Pressense, " Religions before Christ," p. 1G0. 

2 Merivale, " Conversion of the Roman Empire," p. 92. 



THE rROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 285 

The love of country was carried to the highest pitch, and 
was paramount to every other consideration. The laws 
and jurisprudence of Ancient Rome have furnished mod- 
els for the whole civilized world. " The world-wide elas- 
tic system of jurisprudence by which the great Roman 
Empire, with all its boundless variety of races, creeds, and 
manners, was for ages harmoniously and equitably govern- 
ed ; which was accepted and ratified as an eternal possession 
by the same empire when it became Christian ; and has 
been proved to satisfy the principles of law and justice 
announced by a religion which alone proclaimed the unity 
and equality of man; . . . finally, a jurisprudence which 
has been incorporated into the particular legal systems of, 
I suppose, every modern nation in Christendom," marks a 
high degree of civilization, and justifies us in regarding Ro- 
man civilization as representing the manhood of our race. 
5. And now comes, last of all, the Christian civilization, 
or the age of philanthropy. When the Roman Empire 
had attained its zenith, and all civilized nations were 
brought under one government; and the world was at 
peace; and the philosophy of Greece and the jurispru- 
dence of Rome had prepared the way for a higher and 
a nobler civilization, then, " in the fullness of time" — the 
ripeness and maturity of the ages or dispensations — " God 
sent his Son, made under the law, to redeem them that 
are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
sons." He came to exhibit completely the truth which 
had been partially revealed to Plato, that " God is Love" 
— that "Love is creation's final law" — and that the com- 
pleteness and perfection of humanity is " resemblance to 
God.'' 1 He came to announce and enforce the brother- 

1 "God," said Plato, "is supremely good" (" Republic, " book ii. cb. 18); 
and " virtue is likeness or assimilation to God" (" Thesetetus," § 384). 



286 THE TIIEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

hood of mankind, and the equality of all classes and races 
in the sight of God. He proclaimed the equal worth of 
all human souls in the estimation of the heavenly Father; 
and to prove that all men are alike the objects of Divine care 
and solicitude, He laid down his life as " a propitiation for 
the sins of the whole world." For the reception of this gos- 
pel of universal brotherhood and equal rights the Grecian 
and Roman civilizations had prepared the way. And now 
He gives to the race the "new commandment," which is the 
fundamental law of the Kingdom of God, and is finally to. 
become the universal law for all nations, that "Men should 
love one another, as lie loved all men, and laid down his 
life for them? The whole spirit and tendency of this 
crowning form of civilization can not be misapprehended. 
Its sympathies are all with the poor, the suffering, and the 
oppressed ; it can not fail to overthrow castes and aristocra- 
cies, to destroy tyranny, oppression, and slavery, and at last 
to unite all men in bonds of love to each other and to God. 
And now to what people shall be committed the office 
of diffusing and perpetuating this noblest and highest civil- 
ization % Not to the Jewish nation, for it was exclusive and 
selfish ; not to the Greek, for it had become effete ; not to 
the Roman, for it had become corrupt. Christianity, it is 
true, was born on Jewish soil, but it was soon transferred to 
a more favorable clime. The Church was early planted in 
Rome, but achieved its grandest conquests among another 
people. The fierce Germanic tribes of the North conquer 
the Roman Empire, and are conquered b}^ its Christianity. 
Already the Germans had the conception of an illimitable 
Deity, toward whom they looked with solemn and reveren- 
tial awe. 1 Having penetrated into the midst of the Ro- 
man Empire, they came fully into the presence and under 

1 Milman, "Latin Christianity," vol. i. p. 357. 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 287 

the influence of Christianity. Their conversion was speedy 
and comparatively complete. The constant intercourse now 
maintained between Rome and Central and Northern Eu- 
rope in a short time carried this new civilization across the 
Alps ; the circle rapidly widens, and embraces all Europe 
in a common faith. 

All the rich treasures of the past are appropriated by 
Christianity — the moral culture of the Hebrew, the poetry 
and philosophy of Greece, the jurisprudence of Ancient 
Rome. All these — in so far as they are pure and good — ■ 
are absorbed by Christianity, and ennobled and baptized 
by the Christian spirit. In Christian Europe poetry, phi- 
losophy, science flourished as they had never flourished in 
any preceding age, and they lay their richest tribute at the 
feet of Christ, the Divine King of the world. Nature, 
also, herself becomes more and more subject to man, and 
to the religion of the God-man. Science multiplies the 
means of diffusing knowledge and the facilities of inter- 
course among the nations of the earth. The discovery of 
the art of printing opens the Book of Life to the millions 
of our race. Space has been annihilated by railroads; by 
the help of steam continents are united ; the electric tele- 
graph is binding the nations in one. And now the genius 
of Christianity begins more signally to reveal itself as a 
power acting on the social life of man. The forms and 
conditions of his earthly lot are being wonderfully trans- 
formed and improved. Science is emancipating labor, 
and constantly overcoming the sources of human suffer- 
ing. Hygienic science is preserving life and extending 
the term of human existence. Mankind is rising above 
the sphere of mere law, into the sphere of noble love. 
Philanthropic institutions are being daily multiplied, hu- 
manitarian and Christian enterprises most vigorously pros- 



288 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ecuted, and a noble benevolence is rapidly supplanting the 
ignoble selfishness of former ages. Chalmers, Howard, 
Wilberforce, Hitchcock, Amos Lawrence, Elizabeth Fry, 
Florence Nightingale, Mrs. Gladstone, are representative 
men and women of the new age. 

Christian civilization is no longer the property of any 
one nation alone. Now it embraces in its purposes and 
plans the evangelization of all the nations of the earth. The 
world is now its field. The accumulated waves of light 
and power from Hebrew and Grecian and Koman civili- 
zations, to which Christianity has added a new life and 
force, are destined to roll back a tide of blessing upon the 
remnants of those ancient nations, and sweep northward 
and southward — 

"Till like a sea of glory, 
It spreads from pole to pole." 

The crowning achievement of a Christian civilization 
will be the political regeneration of the nations — the es- 
tablishment of all human governments on the principles 
of human equality, natural rights, and the brotherhood of 
man. The glory of this achievement, in all its fullness, is 
not, however, the work of Europe. She inherits too posi- 
tively the martial spirit of Ancient Rome. Ancient cus- 
toms and prescriptions, hereditary castes, aristocracies, and 
kings, and an ecclesiastical polity moulded by these, stand 
in the way of a Christianity of equality, of freedom, and 
of universal brotherhood. Europe has her roots too deeply 
infixed in the past to adapt herself, fully and readily, to 
the enlarged principles of a thoroughly Christian civiliza- 
tion. A new country is therefore needed, a New World, 
where Christianity can remodel human society, and recon- 
struct human governments upon her own principles, and 
the human race can enter upon the last stage in its prog- 



THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. 289 

ress toward the now visible portals of its final goal. " The 
East," says Ritter, "represents hope, the West, fulfillment." 
That new continent was discovered just at the proper hour. 
Had North America been discovered earlier, it would have 
been peopled by Catholic nations, and the noble civiliza- 
tion which Christianity was designed to achieve would 
have been cramped and fettered by the hand of an eccle- 
siastical hierarchy. The New World reposed quietly in 
the bosom of a yet untraversed ocean awaiting the advent 
of the Protestant Reformation. Luther drew the Bible 
from its concealment in the library of the University of 
Erfurt at the same time (1502) that Columbus discovered 
the American continent. 1 

The first settlers in New England were eminently Prot- 
estant. They were men who loved the Word of God, and 
they sought to organize society in this new country upon 
its holy principles. This new colonization had its birth 
amid the agonizing throes of martyrdom. The " Pilgrim 
Fathers" had been persecuted and driven from home for 
Christ's sake. They sought the desert that they might 
have freedom to worship God according to the dictates of 
their own consciences ; and they braved the dangers of 
the almost untraveled deep, and the perils of an inhospi- 
table shore in mid-winter, to lay the foundations of a new 
empire which should be the home of liberty, and the sanc- 
tuary of piety for themselves and their children. The Pu- 
ritan love of freedom and reverence for religion has left 
its impress on the mind and character of the American 
people, upon their modes of thought, and upon the insti- 
tutions of their country. The ideas of universal liberty 
and equal justice are interwoven in her Constitution, and, 
in general, the spirit of her legislation has been in accord- 

1 Guvot, " Earth and Man," p. 322. 

T 



290 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ance therewith. A relic of barbarism landed at James- 
town, in Virginia, which after a fierce struggle of years 
was finally conquered, and the rank offense was ex- 
piated by tears and blood. God has destroyed slavery 
in America by " tho breath of his mouth," and its death- 
knell has sounded all over the globe. The cause of freedom 
is stronger in Europe as the reflex of her triumphs here. 

Finally, a remarkable characteristic of the civilization 
of the New World is the emancipation of man from the 
dominion of nature. By an amazing fertility of mechan- 
ical contrivance man is here rapidly " subduing the earth." 
Released from merely local and hereditary ties, he spreads 
freely over the vast territory, and rapidly multiplies the 
means of easy locomotion. The soil is being extensively 
cultivated ; the climate, even, modified ; the physiognomy 
of nature changed by the intelligence of man ; and a re- 
generated earth is to be, at last, the consequence of a re- 
generated race. Physical nature sympathizes with the in- 
tellectual and moral condition of man. Science is antici- 
pating the time " when the earth will only produce cul- 
tivated plants and domestic animals; when man's se- 
lection shall have supplanted i natural selection;' and 
when the ocean alone will be the only domain in which 
that power can be exerted which for countless cycles of 
ages ruled supreme over the earth." 1 " The whole creation 
has groaned and travailed together in pain until now, . . . 
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." 

"Verily there is a God" that not only judges in the 
earth, but guides and instructs the nations, and who in the 
development of the earth and of history "worketh all 
things according to his eternal counsel and purpose," that 
for the rational creation " God may be all in all." 

1 Wallace, "On Natural Selection," p. 32G. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 291 



CHAPTEE IX. 

SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRATER. 

"England's thinkers are again beginning to see, what they had only tem- 
porarily forgotten, that the difficulties of metaphysics lie at the root of all 
science." — J. S. Mill. 

The most sharply defined issue between Science and 
Keligion — in fact, the only real issue at the present time — 
is in regard to the doctrine of Special Providence and the 
efficacy of Prayer. 

These are not in reality two distinct questions : they are 
but opposite phases of one and the same question. The 
doctrine of special providence is the theoretic aspect, and 
the doctrine of the efficacy of prayer is the practical as- 
pect of the Christian doctrine of the relation of God to 
nature and man. We can not, therefore, discuss the prac- 
tical question apart from the theoretic; neither can w T e 
reach any decisive conclusions in regard to either unless 
we start w T ith clear and well-defined conceptions of the 
fundamental relations between God and nature, and be- 
tween God and man. 

We shall assume the existence of God as the com- 
mon postulate of all religion and of all philosophy. If 
this be denied, then all discussion of the present ques- 
tion is useless, because we have no common starting- 
point. But it will not be denied, we think, that the vast 
majority of scientific men are agreed that the idea of 
God is the necessary presupposition of all those branches 



292 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of science which concern themselves with "genetic prob- 
lems " — that is, with problems of origin ; and which, strict- 
ly speaking, are not problems of science, but of philoso- 
phy. These scientists may not all choose to employ 
the term " God," but they will all recognize, with Mr. 
Spencer, the existence of "an unconditioned Cause" as 
" the ultimate of all ultimates," and they will admit with 
him that the First Cause must be infinite, absolute, and 
perfect, " including within itself all power and transcend- 
ing all law." 1 Mr. Spencer calls this idea of a First 
Cause " a datum of consciousness ;" and he asserts that this 
"inexpugnable consciousness, in which religion and phi- 
losophy are at one with common -sense, is likewise that 
on which all exact science is founded." 2 

Taking this fundamental presupposition as generally 
conceded — namely, the existence of a Power which is un- 
originated and independent ; a Power which is conscious 
of itself and determines itself ; a Power which transcends 
all law and is the source of all law — the question at issue 
may be thus stated — Have our jprayers any influence with 
this Power? Can they in any way affect the Divine feel- 
ing and action toward us? Do they have any indirect 
influence upon that succession of events in nature and his- 
tory which is effectuated and determined by that Supreme 
Power? This is the real question at issue between sci- 
ence and religion. 

Nothing need be said to deepen our sense of the im- 
portance of this issue. We all regard it as one of the 
vital questions of the hour, the most vital question for re- 
ligious men, yea, the most vital question for scientific men, 
inasmuch as there are moments of sadness and sorrow, of 
doubt and mystery, when man feels that his only refuge 

1 " First Principles," p. 38. s Ibid. p. 496. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 293 

is in prayer, and, science or no science, he must pray. But 
if there is no living God to sympathize with us in our sor- 
row and help us in our deepest need, or, which amounts to 
the same thing, if God is so completely environed by laws 
which He has Himself enacted, and so imprisoned in his 
own works that He can do nothing to aid us, then prayer 
is an illusion, and instead of being in any way beneficial 
to us, it inflicts a deep and irreparable injury upon our in- 
tellectual and moral life. If there is nothing in the uni- 
verse but mechanical force and necessary law; if there 
is no freedom and no moral purpose, then prayer for help 
and succor and guidance is a conscious or unconscious de- 
ception practiced by the soul upon itself, and the sooner 
we are undeceived the better; for of all deception the 
most pernicious and depraving is that which a man prac- 
tices upon himself. We could not even accept the cold 
apology for prayer which was made by David Hume, that 
it may have a wholesome reflex influence upon the mind 
of the worshiper, and be a good way of preaching to our- 
selves. 1 There can be nothing useful or helpful in the 
belief and practice of a lie. No accession of moral force 
or moral purity can come from doing any thing in which 
we do not believe. If there is any moral value and any 
real helpfulness in prayer, it must be based upon a rational 
belief that the Divine mind is accessible to the supplica- 
tion of his creature, and that the Divine will is moved 
thereby. "He that cometh to God must believe that He 
is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
Him/' 

Humbly professing this belief without any reservation, 
and regarding it as a perfectly rational belief, we proceed 
to defend it against certain so-called scientific objections, 

1 Buchanan, "Modern Atheism," p. 285. 



294 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and to consider certain difficulties which present them- 
selves to the minds of scientific men. 

We have said that there is a real issue between science 
and religion as to the efficacy of prayer. The statement 
is not strictly correct, and we amend it by saying that the 
issue is not between science and religion, but between 
certain men who study and teach science and certain 
men who study and teach religion. For, as Mr. Murphy 
observes, ■ ■ The antagonism between science and religion 
themselves is purely imaginary. The antagonism between 
the men who study and teach science and the men who 
study and teach religion is unfortunately sometimes real, 
though it is the fashion [just now] to exaggerate it; but so 
far as it is real it is an accident of the present time, which 
will disappear, and indeed is already visibly disappear- 
ing." 1 

No man is in a position to affirm that there is an an- 
tagonism between science and religion until he has first 
clearly determined the sphere and function of each, and 
can say distinctly what science is and what religion is. 
He may have utterly misconceived the nature of religion, 
or he may have misapprehended the function of science, 
and therefore the supposed antagonism may be purely 
imaginary. For example, Herbert Spencer says, " Every 
religion may be defined as an d priori theory of the uni- 
verse." 2 If this definition were correct, we could easily 
conceive how religion and modern science might come 
into collision, because the tendency of science at the pres- 
ent time is to occupy itself with " questions of origin " — 
that is, with " theories of the origin of things," instead of 
being, as Spencer defines it, "a systematic collection of 
facts, ascertained with precision, and so classified and gen- 

1 "Scientific Basis of Faith," p. G. a "First Principles," p. 43. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 295 

eralized as to reveal the uniform relations of co-existence 
and succession among phenomena, and thus give Revi- 
sion." This is the legitimate sphere of all that science 
which can lay any claim to be regarded as " exact science." 
When it transcends this limit it ceases to be science and 
becomes philosophy — a philosophy which will be more or 
less valid and legitimate as it recognizes the authority and 
submits to the guidance of d priori ideas of the reason. 

But is Mr. Spencer's definition of religion correct ? 
We think not. Indeed, it would be difficult to give a def- 
inition of religion wider from the mark. He might with 
just as much propriety have said that religion is an a pri- 
ori theory of the origin of language, of government, of 
trade, or of music. Either Mr. Spencer must have made 
this definition for an unworthy purpose, or he must be in 
utter darkness as to the nature of religion. One needs 
only to cast a hasty glance over the history of ancient re- 
ligions, or to consider with an unprejudiced mind any of 
the contemporaneous forms of religion, to be convinced 
that religion is, and always has been, a mode of life de- 
termined by the sense of dependence upon a Supreme 
Power. 1 Religion has always been a matter of practical 
interest and personal concernment, and has no more to do 
witli " theories of the universe " than with theories of light, 
or theories of electricity, or theories of political economy. 

The separate spheres of religion and science have been 
admirably defined by James Martineau in a few words — 

1 Without referring to the writings of theologians, we may take any defi- 
nition of religion which incidentally occurs in general literature. For ex- 
ample, Froude defines religion as " the attitude of reverence in which noble- 
minded men instinctively place themselves toward the Unknown Power which 
made man and his dwelling-place. It is the natural accompaniment of their 
lives, the sanctification of their actions and their acquirements. It is what 
gives to man in the midst of the rest of Creation his special elevation and 
dignity " ("History of England," vol. xii. p. 560). 



296 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

" Science discloses the Method of the world but not its 
cause: religion [or theology] discloses the Cause of the 
world but not its method. There is no conflict between 
them except when either forgets its ignorance of what 
the other alone can know." 1 This is well said, and 
directly to the point. Keligion, or more properly the- 
ology (for theology is the objective correlate and piety 
the subjective correlate of religion), teaches what God 
is, what are his attributes, what are the moral and spir- 
itual relations which subsist between God and man, and 
what are the duties which arise out of these relations. 
Science teaches what nature is, and what are the relations 
and laws of natural phenomena. Science is the co-ordi- 
nation of phenomena. Here no conflict can arise. The 
truths which are taught by each rest on their own appro- 
priate evidence, and they are capable of verification by di- 
rect or indirect reduction to experience — the facts of sci- 
ence to external experience, and the facts of religion to in- 
ternal experience. These experiences can not, in the nat- 
ure of the case, be contradictory, because religion deals 
with one class of facts and science with another. Such 
being the case, the scientist may be as certain of the real- 
ity of religion as of the reality of science — that is, he may 
be directly and immediately conscious of the same feeling 
of reverence, the same sense of dependence, the same feel- 
ing of obligation, and the same loyalty of soul toward the 
unseen u Power which makes for righteousness," 2 which 
is experienced by the unscientific believer. This is frank- 
ly avowed by Dr. Tyndall. He says, " The facts of re- 
ligious feeling are to me as certain as the facts of phys- 

1 " Essays," 1st Series, p. 178. 

2 Preface to the seventh edition of the Address before the British Asso- 
ciation of Science at Belfast. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 297 

ics ;" and he refers with evident emotion to a period in 
his earlier years when he " prized the conscious strength 
and pleasure derived from moral and religious feeling." 
" Give me," he says, " their health, and there is no spirit- 
ual experience of those earlier years, no resolve of duty 
or work of mercy, no act of self-denial, no solemnity of 
thought, no joy in the life and aspect of nature which 
would not still be mine." l We doubt not that there are 
thousands of scientific men who to-day might bear the 
same testimony. 

Here the question will suggest itself, How, then, comes 
it to pass that there exists any antagonism between the 
teachers of science and the teachers of religion ? We 
answer, the antagonism has arisen on that debatable ground 
which lies between the two, where speculative thought, 
whether from the stand-point of religion or the stand-point 
of science, seeks to form definite conceptions of the rela- 
tion between God and nature, to bring our outer and 
inner experiences into a higher unity of reason, and to 
construct "a priori theories of the origin of things." 

We do not presume to say that these metaphysical spec- 
ulations are either futile or improper. But what we do 
insist upon, and beg the reader distinctly to note, is that 
these speculations are neither scientific nor religious, and 
that neither true science nor true religion is responsible 
for them. They are not religious, even though indulged 
in by theologians; because religion is solely concerned 
with the personal consciousness of our relation to God, and 
the discharge of our personal duty to God, and not in the 
remotest sense with any theory as to the method of causa- 
tion in the world around us. It is equally certain that 

1 Preface to the seventh edition of the Address before the British Asso- 
ciation of Science at Belfast. 



298 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

these speculations are not scientific, even though indulged 
in by scientists ; because science deals only with phenom- 
ena, and the laws of phenomena ; and it is a fundamental 
canon of all scientific induction that no problem is to be 
mooted unless it can be presented in terms of experience, 
and no principles are to be admitted which can not be 
verified by experiment. But the modern speculations re- 
specting the origin of motion, of life, and of mind can not 
be presented in terms of sensible experience, and can not 
be verified by actual experiment. So far as sensible ex- 
perience goes, every case of physical motion is a trans- 
formation of energy, and every new physiological unit 
or aggregation of units is derived from pre-existent bio- 
plasm. And so Dr. Tyndall, in the speculations in which 
he indulges, in the now celebrated " Inaugural Address " 
delivered at Belfast, particularly in regard to the origin 
of life, admits that he " overstejjs the boundary of the ex- 
perimental evidence y" therefore, by his own admission, 
these speculations are unscientific? These discussions are 
inevitable, and even valuable. We would protest as ear- 
nestly as Dr. Tyndall against the attempt of any man to 
set limits to human thought, but we would equally protest 
against the attempt to pass off the results of speculative 
thinking in any direction as "exact science." True science 
is itself dishonored and discredited by all such attempts. 

1 Dr. Tyndall subsequently defends his course by saying, "The kingdom 
of science cometh not by observation and experiment alone, but is completed 
by fixing the roots of observation and experiment in a region inaccessible to 
both, and in dealing with which we are forced to fall back upon the picturing 
power of the mind" — " Einbildungshraft'''' — the force of imagination 
(Preface to seventh edition). Are we then to believe that the imagination 
is the source of scientific principles, that it has any "power of intuition, or 
can in any way create its own objects?" Why does he not fall back on his 
" A?ischauungsgabe," or faculty of rational intuition, and admit that he is 
in the region of the metaphysical ? See " Fragments of Science," p. 130. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 299 

We have said that it is solely within the field of specu- 
lative thought that all controversy has arisen concerning 
the doctrine of special providence and the efficacy of 
prayer. This will be apparent from the consideration 
of the fact that from the dawn of speculative thought 
to the present hour two radically opposite theories of 
the origin of things have prevailed — one mechanical, the 
other vital. 

The vital theory regards nature as the product and the 
continued work of an ever-living and ever-creating Spirit, 
who is the immediate fountain of all force, and the imma- 
nent life of all that lives. It looks upon the universe " as 
the manifestation and the abode of a Free Mind like our 
own," who realizes his thoughts in its collocations and ad- 
justments, embodies his ideals in its typical forms, and by 
his free volition subordinates nature to the higher pur- 
poses of intellectual and moral life — the formation of 
noble human characters. In a world so constituted prayer 
is a real power, and human character is a free development 
through the power of prayer which influences that ever- 
present Will that sustains our life. 

The mechanical theory regards the world as a huge 
machine supplied with motor power in the primal act of 
creation, and then left to make its own history according 
to rigid laws of mechanics and " the multiplication table." 
There is no " Power which makes for righteousness," and 
no purpose of love mingling in the necessary order of 
things. Evolution is the only law of creation; there is 
nothing spontaneous, nothing free. All the processes of 
nature, all the forms of life, all the facts of consciousness, 
all the sympathies, sacrifices, joys, and sorrows of social 
life, and all the noble or ignoble deeds of history, are only 
mechanical functions which can be weighed or measured, 



300 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and catalogued in tables of statistics. Inflexible neces- 
sity, inexorable law, absolute uniformity, unbroken con- 
tinuity tell the story of the universe. In such a world 
there is no place for prayer, or at most it is but the cry of 
anguish wrung from the lips of those who are being man- 
gled and crushed by the ponderous mechanism, which 
floats away into the infinite spaces, and never finds a liv- 
ing ear or touches a compassionate heart. Then, as Dr. 
Hedge puts the melancholy case, " We must rough it as 
best we can with driving-wheel and fly-wheel, and trust 
that the power may not fail and the gearing foul in our 
short day." 

This is the position of some, but by no means of the 
majority of the scientists of our time. We venture the as- 
sertion that it is no part of the doctrine of modern science, 
neither does it follow as a logical consequence from any 
of the accepted principles of modern science, nor does it 
reflect the real feeling of the best exponents of modern 
science. 

Dr. Tyndall stands as one of the most popular expo- 
nents of scientific knowledge, and may be regarded as a 
fair representative of the feelings of many scientific men. 
And in his estimation "the problem of problems of our 
day is to find a legitimate satisfaction for the religious 
emotions." He admits that these religious emotions are 
inexpugnable facts of human nature, as certain and as in- 
contestable as the facts of physics. Now what is meant 
by a legitimate satisfaction of the religious emotions ? 
Does it not mean that human reverence must have a real 
and a worthy Object ? that for human duty there must be 
an imperative ground of obligation ? that for true loyalty 
of soul to truth and right there must be an eternal reason ? 
and that the instinctive trust of the soul in everlasting 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 3Q1 

righteousness and everlasting love must have a rational 
vindication ? Where shall we look for this object % " May 
we look upward and onward, or have we nothing to do 
but yield to the pressure from behind and below V What 
conception are we to form of that mysterious Power or 
Principle which stands in necessary correlation with the 
religious nature of man ? Dr. Tyndall permits us " to 
fashion this conception as we will" — with that "he has 
nothing to do ;" only he demands that in doing so we ob- 
serve two conditions : 1. " Be careful that your conception 
is not an unworthy one ;" " invest it with your highest and 
holiest thoughts." 2. Allow "no intrusion of purely cre- 
ative power into any series of phenomena," no arbitrary 
interference with the order Of nature "for special pur* 
poses." The first condition would be violated by our con- 
ceiving that Power as purely mechanical, for then the sub- 
limest interests of our moral and spiritual life would be 
surrendered to the action of the same force as that which 
draws a stone to the earth. The conception of unconscious 
and unmoral force is not our highest and holiest thought 
— it can not inspire reverence and loyalty and love. The 
second condition would be violated by our regarding that 
Power as arbitrary — that is, as following no law ; for that 
would be opposed to all the inductions of modern science, 
and would invalidate all conclusions based on the assumed 
permanence of natural laws. The problem, then, is to 
steer between the Scylla and Charybdis of mechanism and 
arbitrariness, and find the open sea where freedom may 
move in harmony with law, and where, in the grand hie- 
rarchy of laws the physical order of the world may be co- 
ordinated with, perhaps subordinated to, the higher reign 
of righteousness and love. 

The solution of this problem can only be reached through 



302 T HE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the discussion of the following questions : 1. What are 
" the facts of religious feeling " involved in this problem, 
and what are the necessary correlatives of these facts ? 2. 
What are the facts concerning the order of nature in- 
volved in the problem, and what are the logical inferences 
from these facts ? 3. How can the conception of the Force 
which is manifested in the phenomena of nature be brought 
into harmony with the idea of God as revealed in the re- 
ligious consciousness? 

1. First, then, what are the facts of religious feeling 
which "as experiences of consciousness are perfectly be- 
yond the assaults of logic," and what are the necessary 
correlatives of these facts ? 

We present first of all the incontestable fact t\\%h prayer 
is natural to man. Like our instinctive belief in the be- 
ing of God, the accountability of man, and the immortal- 
ity of the soul, we have also an instinctive prompting to 
pray, and an instinctive belief in the efficacy of prayer. 
This is an essentially human characteristic ; it is common 
to all men. Man has been defined in many ways, as " a 
rational animal," "a social animal," "a tool-using animal," 
"a language-speaking animal;" with more justice may he 
be called " a praying animal," for prayer is a universal 
characteristic and fundamental differentia of man. Never 
has the traveler yet found a people which did not pray. 
Tribes of men have been found without houses, without 
raiment, without letters, without science, but never without 
prayer any more than without speech. This was remark- 
ed by Plutarch eighteen centuries ago, 1 and the researches 
and explorations of modern travelers and ethnologists have 
added confirmation to its truth. The flow of prayer from 
human lips is just as natural as the flow of speech. Is 

1 "Ilpoe Ko\dJrr)v," xxxi. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 303 

man in danger or in sorrow, his most natural and spon- 
taneous refuge is in prayer. The suffering, bewildered, 
terror-stricken soul that knows not where to fly, flies to 
God. There are few men, probably no men, who in mo- 
ments of extreme peril or intense anguish can resist the 
impulse to pray. Nature is stronger than all our logic ; 
and, science or no science, the cry for help will rise from 
the lips of even skeptical men. 1 

We ask that these facts may be fully considered and 
fairly estimated. The instinctive tendency to pray is a 
universal fact of human nature, as valid and as significant 
as any fact in physics. It presents as rightful a claim to 
be taken account of in our theories of the ultimate consti- 
tution of the universe as the First Law of Motion or the 
Conservation of Energy. If we disregard it, our System® 
Mundi will be one-sided and partial, and, instead of being 
a philosophy, will be only a caricature. 

We do not claim that the presence in man of this in- 

1 This is admitted even by those who regard prayer for physical change, as, 
for example, the averting of disease or the fall of rain, to be "irrational and 
unconsciously irreverent." " I repeat that no theory of the universe, no phi- 
losophy of human nature, and no conclusion of science can ever lay an arrest 
upon the instincts of the universal heart in the presence of calamity, and with 
the prospect of its increase. Let men philosophize as they will, and let sci- 
ence march where it will (conquering realm after realm, and reducing all 
under the rigor of law), the human spirit will always ' cry unto God ' in 
times of crisis, and will find immeasurable solace in 'committing its causes' 
unto Him; for the instinct to pray for relief in times of anxiety or of peril 
is one which can never be exorcised from the heart of man. But it does 
not follow that it will always (or that it ought ever) to imagine that by so 
doing it can deflect the order of natui-e or induce God to alter his prear- 
rangements. The relief obtained is in the act of submission and of filial trust, 
not in the notion of being able to persuade an infinitely powerful and sympa- 
thetic Listener" ("Prayer: 'The Two Spheres:' They are Two," by the 
Rev. William Knight. Contemporary Review, December, 1873, p. 35). Of 
course we have no reason to expect that Dr. Tyndall should yield his judg- 
ment to the authority of Scripture, but we may legitimately expect the Rev. 
William Knight, of the Free Church of Scotland, to defer in some measure 
to James v. 13-18. 



304 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

stinctive tendency to pray proves the efficacy of prayer — 
that is, proves the existence of a living God and Father 
who hears and answers prayer. But it does establish a 
strong presumption in favor of the doctrine ; for how 
comes it to pass that the sentiment is so perennial and 
so universal? Either it was originally implanted in the 
soul of man by the Creator, or there exists something in 
the constitution of nature — the " relation between the or- 
ganism and its environment" — which determines this feel- 
ing in man, and in either case it must be regarded as nor- 
mal, and as essential to humanity. If nature teaches us to 
pray, and, as it were, compels us to pray, then we are justi- 
fied in the assumption that there is nothing in the ultimate 
constitution of nature which can contradict her own ordi- 
nances and render prayer an absurdity. 

The next fact to which we desire to direct attention is that 
prayer is an essential element of life — we do not mean 
physical life, but that which gives significance and value 
and completeness to human existence — namely, ethical and 
spiritual life. That religion is deeply seated in the nature 
of man, and, in fact, ineradicable, is conceded by Dr. Tyn- 
dall. " No atheistical reasoning," he says, " can dislodge re- 
ligion from the heart of man. Logic can not deprive us 
of life, and religion is life to the religious. As an experi- 
ence of consciousness, it is perfectly beyond the assaults of 
logic." 1 This general admission that man has a religious 
nature, a religious consciousness, is important. The bear- 
ing of this upon our argument will be obvious when we 
have considered more particularly the nature and content 
of this " religious consciousness." In what does it consist ? 
Into what elements is it resolvable by psychological anal- 
ysis ? We answer, religious consciousness is a conscious- 

1 Preface to the seventh edition of Dr. Tvndall's "Address." 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 305 

ness conditioned by the idea of God, and involves a sense 
of dependence ; a feeling of reverence ; a sense of obliga- 
tion; a sentiment of loyalty; a conscious community of 
nature; and a longing for a deeper fellowship with the 
Divine. 

Every thing around us and every thing within us makes 
us conscious of limitation and dependence. We know 
that our own existence is not self-originated or self-sus- 
tained. We have the sense of an immanent all-pervading 
Life which sustains and conditions our life. We have the 
sentiment of an overshadowing Power and Presence which 
compasses us behind and before, and lays its hand upon 
us, and we are constrained to bow in reverence and awe 
before that Power which controls our destiny. With the 
sense of dependence is associated the feeling of obligation 
to conform our conduct to the will of this Supreme Being, 
and to subordinate the ruling purpose of our life to the 
Divine purpose of creation so far as that purpose can be 
known. There is also more or less loyalty of soul to what 
is just and true, a natural and constitutional sympathy 
of reason with the law of God — " it delights in that law," 
and " consents that it is good." Finally, there is the con- 
sciousness of some community of nature between God and 
man, and some living susceptibility to the influences and 
inspirations of the higher world which authorizes the be- 
lief that there may be a communion of thought, a relation 
of conscience, and an approach of affection between the Di- 
vine and human that shall purify and elevate our nature, 
and lift us up into a resemblance to God. 

The bearing of all that we have just said on the neces- 
sity of prayer will have already suggested itself to the 
reader. The feeling of dependence, the sense of feeble- 
ness will prompt man to pray. Man is not sufficient for 

U 



306 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

himself. He is not fit to be his own all in all. .He has 
not resources within himself to supply his own spiritual 
wants. He needs some external succor, some support to 
the will, some inspiration from without. And he can be- 
come a strong man and a noble man only by aspiring and 
striving after something beyond and above himself — 

"Unless above himself he can 
Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!" 

When his affections and cares and thoughts all centre 
upon himself, his soul shrivels down to a dreary selfishness, 
and becomes a dry microscopic point, or else a mass of 
putrid sensuality. Man needs a lofty object above him- 
self, after which he may aspire and upon which he may 
lay hold and lift himself into a nobler form of life. That 
lofty object is the ideal of a, perfect, noble human charac- 
ter. " The formation of noble human character," says 
Mr. Murphy, " is the highest work that man or, so far as 
we know, that God can be engaged in." 1 The thoughtful 
mind recognizes that there is a purpose to be fulfilled in 
life which is nobler than mere enjoyment. Who has dared 
to say that our highest duty is to be happy ? But every 
one must feel that it is our highest duty to form a no- 
bler character and let the happiness take care of itself. 

And now is it not a fact of experience that the more a 
man strives after a pure and noble life, the more does he 
become conscious of the need of superhuman strength and 
grace? He finds that he has to wage an uncompromis- 
ing, sometimes even agonizing warfare against hereditary 
" taints of blood," against morbid instincts and low pas- 
sions, against inherent selfishness and meanness, against 
tyrant habits engendered in the recklessness of youth, 
against the temptations of designing men and abandoned 

1 " Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 39. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 3Q7 

women, and the false sentiment, despotic opinion, and ar- 
bitrary customs of modern fashionable society. In the 
presence of these giants of evil with their fetters of iron 
he stands appalled, and against himself, against his temp- 
tations and sins, even against society itself, he feels he 
must call upon God for help. Through Divine strength 
he may conquer ; without it — never. There are those who 
hope to conquer evil through a certain inherent force of 
nature, or a certain self-caused and self-attained culture. 
We do not dare to say that they will utterly fail, or that 
what they achieve is utterly valueless. But we do say that 
the character they develop is not the highest style of ex- 
cellence. There is in it a boldness bordering on audacity, 
a self-sufficiency akin to haughtiness, and an arbitrariness 
which is repulsive. The very basis of a noble character, 
the very essence of that prophetic power which has exert- 
ed the mightiest influence on the destinies of man, is hu- 
mility. The loftiest and finest minds have been eminent- 
ly trustful — men of heroic confidence who derived their in- 
spiration and confessed their dependence on the light and 
strength which come from above. These are the men who 
really shape the history of the world, 1 these are the men 
who command the esteem and win the reverence even of 
unbelievers. We can not illustrate this point better than 
by quoting the words of Dr. Tyndall in regard to Michael 
Faraday. Faraday, it is well known, was one of the great- 
est of modern scientists — it ought also to be as widely 
known that he was a devout Christian. Tyndall dined 
with Faraday, and on that occasion Faraday " said grace." 

1 "When ten men are so in earnest on one side that they will sooner he kill- 
ed than give way, and twenty are earnest enough on the other to cast their 
votes for it but will not risk their skins, the ten will give the law to the twen- 
ty in virtue of the robuster faith, and of the strength that goes along with it." 
— Froude, "History of England," vol. xii. p. 562. 



308 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Tyndall writes : " I am almost ashamed to call his prayer a 
£ saying' of grace. In the language of Scripture, it might 
be described as the petition of a son into whose heart God 
had sent the Spirit of his Son, and who, with absolute trust, 
asked a blessing from his father. We dined on roast beef, 
Yorkshire pudding, and potatoes ; drank sherry, talked of 
research and its requirements, and of his habit of keeping 
himself free from the distractions of society. He was 
bright and joyful — boy like, in fact — though he is now 
sixty-two. His work excites my admiration, but contact 
with him warms my heart. Here surely is a strong man. 
I love strength, but let me not forget the example of its 
union with modesty, tenderness, and sweetness in the char- 
acter of Faraday." 1 

This, then, is the point we desire to emphasize. It is a 
fact of experience that prayer can give calmness, purity, 
and strength of soul. It can lighten perplexity and sor- 
row. It can empower us to resist temptation, and enable 
us to overcome sin. It can give "modesty, tenderness, 
and sweetness" to character. In a word, it can aid us 
materially in the formation of a noble human character. 

Noble character can only be formed under two con- 
ditions. First, it can only be formed under the condi- 
tion of freedom. The unfree is the unmoral. 2 There can 
be no dignity and no moral worth in action which re- 
sults from mere mechanical force. Personality alone has 
responsibility, dignity, and worth. If, then, moral personal- 
ity has true freedom and self-determination, we are free to 
pray, and God is free to answer prayer. We may believe 
that the physical world is held in iron bands of necessary 

1 " Fragments of Science," p. 350. 

2 "Only in the domain of Freedom can there exist the moral." — Marten- 
sen, " Christian Ethics," p. 1. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 309 

causation, but we can not believe that the moral world is 
so bound. The human will is free, and the Divine will 
is free. " The First Cause," says Mr. Spencer, " includes 
within itself all power" — therefore alternative power — 
" and transcends all law" — therefore it can not be necessi- 
tated. We can not doubt that Mr. Tyndall would freely 
accord this position. He might hesitate, he would unques- 
tionably refuse to unite in " prayer for rain," for example, 
because he holds that the fall of rain is governed by 
changeless physical laws, and " no act of humiliation, in- 
dividual or national, could call one shower from heaven ;" 
this would be a miracle, and " the age of miracles is past." * 
But we do not see how he could refuse to unite in the pray- 
ers of the National Church for the forgiveness of sins, for 
strength to overcome sin, for fortitude to endure, and for 
consolation under the afflictions and sorrows incident to 
human life. 

The second condition necessary to the development of 
noble character is that man shall be capable of receiving in- 
spiration from the great source of all life, especially of all 
spiritual life. The universal belief of our race that there 
is a community of nature between God and man, express- 
ed alike in the words of Aratus, the Asiatic poet, Clean thes, 
the Stoic philosopher, and Paul, the Christian teacher — "We 
are the offspring of God" — justifies the further expectation 
and hope that there may be a real communion between 
the human and the Divine. Of course this is fundament- 
ally " a question between Theism and Atheism, between 
a God and no God," between a conscious Being and an 
unconscious Force. If there is a personal God, then He 
may communicate with our souls which dwell, as it were, 
within the ocean of his immensity, and are surrounded and 
1 "Fragments of Science," p. 39. 



310 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

interpenetrated by his living presence. Then there may 
be a real sympathy, a loving fellowship, and a sanctifying 
communion. Even should science forbid the Author of 
nature to interpose in the slightest degree in the proces- 
sion of phenomena or modify in the least the action of the 
so-called natural forces, surely it will not be so "auda- 
cious" 1 as to forbid that He shall come near to human 
souls, and interpose in the moral order of the world to de- 
liver man from sin and purify and elevate human society. 
Here at any rate science is out of its place. It is guilty 
of that very presumption with which it is evermore charg- 
ing the theology of the Middle Ages, viz., the attempt to 
monopolize the whole field of human knowledge and ex- 
perience. If the good man does feel that God is with him 
and in him, if he knows by experience that prayer is an 
act of Divine communion — that it opens to him an unfail- 
ing fountain of refreshment, solace, and strength ; if he is 
conscious that it does lift him up to a larger and more 
blessed life, then even science, which boasts its rigid ad- 
herence to the inductive method, and its unswerving loy- 
alty to fact and experience, must obey the Divine injunc- 
tion — " Be still, and know that I am God.' 5 " I dwell with 
him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the 
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the con- 
trite." 

2. We come now to the consideration of the second 
question, What are the facts concerning the order of nat- 
ure which have been placed beyond controversy by the 
inductions of science, and what are the logical inferences 
from these facts ? 

The facts concerning the order of nature which it is 

1 "Questions such as these derive their present interest in great part from 
their audacity. " — Tyndall. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. gH 

claimed are placed beyond controversy may be stated in 
the following words : Now of all the results of science, 
none is more universal and more emphatic than this : that 
there is no arbitrariness in the series of events w T hich con- 
stitute our experience ; but that a perfect order or uniform- 
ity prevails through them all, an order which our intellect 
can apprehend under the form of cause and effect, or per- 
manent force and necessary phenomena, or, better, a con- 
stant persistency of amount both of matter and force in 
the universe. ! This statement of the scientist is accept- 
ed by many theologians (of the Calvinistic school), who 
say with Kev. William Knight, " The doctrine of the per- 
sistence of physical force and the invariability of natural 
law, is a physical truth of which the theological phase or 
corollary is the uniformity of Divine operation and the 
inviolableness of Divine love. 'The permanence of the 
order of nature ' is the scientific equivalent of the Divine 
constancy — 'the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.'" 2 
How far and in what sense we accept this doctrine will 
be seen as we advance in the discussion. 

At the beginning of this chapter we remarked that 
if the Christian doctrine of the efficacy of prayer is dis- 
puted, whether on theoretical or experiential grounds, 
an adequate and complete defense can only be made by 
falling back upon the fundamental conception of God, 
and the relation of God to nature and humanity presented 
in the preceding chapters of this volume. Is there a God 
in the proper and commonly accepted sense of the term — 
a conscious, free, personal First Cause, the Creator of the 
world and man ? Is He the immanent Conservator of the 
universe — is his omnipotence ike force, his reason the law, 

1 See "Fragments of Science," pp. 38 and 64-65. 

2 Contemporary Review, December, 1873, p. 30. 



312 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and his omnipresence the life of all nature? These are 
the questions which must be settled before we can suc- 
cessfully deal with the problem of the efficacy of prayer. 
If we are not agreed on these points, the debate must 
be adjourned until we have settled the first principles 
which underlie the discussion. This will be obvious to 
all who are acquainted with the history of the contro- 
versy. If it can be proved that there is no conscious, 
free, personal God, the creator and conservator of the 
universe, the question is settled ; then prayer can be of 
no avail, and must " be abandoned to the domain of rec- 
ognized superstitions." But if it be admitted that there 
is a God, in the proper import of that term, then the ques- 
tion may be debated whether the Christian doctrine of 
the efficacy of prayer is consistent with the scientific 
conception of material nature as "the living garment 
of God." 1 

Dr. Tyndall is the fairest and ablest representative of 
that class of scientific men who to-day are denying the ef- 
ficacy of prayer — that is, of such prayer the answer to which 
would seem to involve the interference of personal volition 
in the economy of nature ; and he believes in the existence 
of a God. He has again and again repelled with feeling 
the imputation of atheism which the English theologians 
have inconsiderately and unfairly cast upon him. He is a 
frank, outspoken man, and he admits that in " his hours of 
weakness and doubt" he has temptations to material athe- 
ism. " But," he says, " I have noticed that it is not in 
hours of clearness and vigor that this doctrine commends 
itself to my mind, and that in presence of stronger and 
healthier thoughts it ever disappears as offering no solu- 
tion of the mystery in which we dwell and of which we 

1 Tyndall, "Fragments of Science," p. 1G0. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 313 

form a part." 1 He also expresses his conviction that " the 
Power which, works for righteousness is intelligent as well 
as ethical." 2 And furthermore he asserts that "it is no 
departure from scientific method to place behind natural 
phenomena a universal Father who, in answer to the pray- 
ers of his children, alters the currents of those phenom- 
ena. Thus far theology and science go hand in hand." 3 
Let it, then, be distinctly remembered that we are arguing 
with men who believe in the existence of God. 

In an article which appeared in the Fortnightly Re- 
view for August, 1872, entitled " Statistical Inquiries into 
the Efficacy of Prayer," by Francis Galton, a species of 
guerrilla warfare is opened on this doctrine from the stand- 
point of experience. 

Mr. Galton assumes that " the efficacy of prayer is a per- 
fectly appropriate and legitimate subject of scientific in- 
quiry." It must be assumed to be subject to unvarying 
laws, and, like all physical problems, may be brought to 
the test of rigid mathematics. By the marshaling of very 
incomplete and partial statistics, drawn chiefly from Chal- 
mers's " Biographical Dictionary," he endeavors to show 
that praying men, especially clergymen, are no healthier, 
recover from sickness no better, and do not live any longer 
than the men who do not pray. Insurance companies 
make no distinction between the prayerful and the prayer- 
less ; they regard them as equal risks. Furthermore, pray- 
ing men do not make any better statesmen, any more suc- 
cessful men of business, or any better physicians and law- 
yers than prayerless men. On the contrary, " it is a com- 
mon week-day opinion of the world that praying men are 

1 Preface to the Address before the British Association of Science at 
Belfast. 

2 Preface to the seventh edition. 3 Contemporary Review. 



314 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF TEE WORLD. 

not practical." Finally, the children of praying parents 
are no better endowed intellectually, and do not turn out 
any better morally than the rest of mankind. His gentle 
impeachment is that they are somewhat below the common 
average. By this " scientific method," as he is pleased to 
call it, the writer flatters himself that he has routed the 
army of believers in the efficacy of prayer, and that the 
practice of prayer will soon become "obsolete;" "just 
as the Water of Jealousy and the Urim and Thummin of 
the Mosaic law did in the times of the later Jewish kings." 
But Mr. Galton's fusillade did not produce the effect he 
expected. True, it made some noise, and for a brief sea- 
son commanded attention; but it was soon discovered to 
be a mere discharge of rhetorical blank-cartridge which 
hit nothing. His parade of argument was found to be 
utterly inconsequential. The dullest mind could perceive 
that the attempt to solve moral problems by statistical 
averages was a practical folly, because it began by un- 
ceremoniously assuming the very point it ought to prove, 
namely, that the determinations of will, whether Divine 
or human, are governed by necessary laios as surely as the 
revolution of planets and the vibration of molecules. It 
is precisely because personal acts are not reducible to any 
fixed laws, or capable of representation by any numerical 
calculations, that statistical averages acquire any value as 
substitutes. " No one dreams of applying statistical aver- 
ages to calculate the period of the earth's rotation, by 
showing that four and twenty hours is the exact medium 
of time, comparing one month's or one year's revolutions 
with another's. It is only where the individual move- 
ments are irregular that it is necessary to aim at a prox- 
imate regularity by calculating in masses." 1 The com- 

1 Mansel, "Prolegomena Logica," p. 280. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 315 

parison of large averages may approach equality and fur- 
nish a basis of probability as to the future, but the contin- 
gency of each individual case remains still a contingency. 

In no department of human inquiry is there so much 
temptation and so much opportunity for plausible soph- 
istry as in the now somewhat popular application of statis- 
tics to etiological problems. By a skillful manipulation 
of figures, Mr. Buckle 1 flatters himself that he has made it 
apparent that " individual felons only carry into effect the 
necessary consequences of preceding circumstances ;" that 
marriages are regulated by the price of wheat; and that 
the number of suicides is determined by the rise and fall 
of the barometer ; in a word, that the whole of man's so- 
cial and moral life is part and parcel of nature, and sub- 
ject to the same necessary mechanical laws. 

The logic of statistics, or rather the sophistry of statis- 
tics by which Mr. Galton proves the uselessness of prayer, 
would, if skillfully managed, be equally efficacious in prov- 
ing that sobriety and integrity, honor and honesty, are un- 
profitable and useless virtues — at least so far as this life is 
concerned ; and we might say of each of them what Shake- 
speare's "Murderer" says of conscience : " It fills one full 
of obstacles. ... It beggars any man that keeps it. It is 
turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing ; 
and every man that means to live well endeavors to trust 
himself, and live without it." Dishonest men are as 
healthy, recover as well from sickness, and live as long as 
honest men. Wicked men prosper in the world, they suc- 
ceed in business and increase in riches better, it may be, 
than good and godly men. Dishonorable and unprincipled 
politicians climb into place and power with more facility 
than men of honor and integrity. Distinguished lawyers 
1 "History of Civilization." 



316 TEE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and skillful physicians have not been strictly temperate; 
and statistical tables may be easily produced which show 
that the longest-lived men have been such as did not go to 
bed sober for the last fifty years of their lives. Therefore 
sobriety, honesty, integrity, veracity are not profitable virt- 
ues, and, weighed in the same scales and by the same 
standards as are used by Mr. Galton to test the weight and 
worth of prayer, they are practically valueless and do not 
pay. 

Simultaneous with Mr. Galton 's article, there appeared 
a communication in the Contemporary Review entitled 
" The Prayer for the Sick : Hints toward a serious attempt 
to estimate its value," with the indorsement of Dr. Tyn- 
dall. The proposal contained in this communication came 
to be generally known in newspaper slang as " Tyndall's 
Prayer-gauge," though Tyndall was not its author. The 
proposition was that " One single ward or hospital under 
the care of first-rate physicians or surgeons, containing a 
number of patients afflicted with those diseases which have 
been best studied, and of which the mortality rates are best 
known, should be, during a period of not less than three to 
five years, made the subject of special prayer by the whole 
body of the faithful, and that at the end of that period the 
mortality rates should be compared with the past rates, 
and also with those of other leading hospitals similarly 
well managed during the same periods." This experi- 
ment, the writer thinks, offers " to the faithful an occasion 
of demonstrating to the faithless an imperishable record 
of the power of prayer." 

There was a tone of moderation and candor in this prop- 
osition which for a moment beguiled the popular mind, 
and there were Christian ministers so injudicious as to ad- 
mit that the proposal should be entertained and the ex- 



SPECIAL PROYIDEXCE AXD PRAYER. 317 

periment tried. But its superficial fairness was delusive, 
and its plausibility concealed a snare. The writer must 
have been sufficiently conversant with the Christian doc- 
trine concerning prayer to know that the acceptance of 
his challenge would be a theological blunder; for there 
are no unconditional assurances in the Word of God that 
prayers for health and long life shall always be answered. 
We presume also that he must have been sufficiently ac- 
quainted with medical science to perceive that the accept- 
ance of his challenge would be a scientific blunder, for 
there are elements in the problem which can not be sci- 
entifically appreciated, measured, and recorded. Such, for 
example, are the temperament idiosyncrasy, hereditary 
diathesis, previous habits of life, and mental character- 
istics of the patients ; such the variety in skill, care, sym- 
pathy, and 'almost inspiration among physicians and nurses ; 
such also the differences of climatal, sanitary, and hospital 
conditions; all these elements, whose varied degrees of 
potency are incapable of being estimated, enter into the 
problem and affect the results. The multiplicity and com- 
plexity of these elements render the effects as irregularly 
variable as if each cause had not been subject to any pre- 
vious conditions. 1 The problem is not even capable of 
being scientifically presented in terms of experience, and 
until that is done it can not be subjected to experiment. 
Suppose the experiment to be tried in the manner pro- 
posed by the writer, and the mortality rates to be in favor 
of the hospital for which prayer had been offered, it would 
still be open for the scientific skeptic to affirm that the 
causes of the difference are to be found in those elements 
whose varying values had not been enumerated in the 
statement of the problem, and not in any Divine interpo- 

1 Comte, "Positive Philosophy," vol. i. p. 45, 



318 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF TEE WORLD. 

sition in answer to prayer. 1 He might claim that the pa- 
tients were not all of the same age or temperament, the 
physicians were not all of equal skill, the nurses were not 
all alike attentive, the climatal and sanitary conditions 
were not equal, and the question would be left in precise- 
ly the same condition as before. 

Whatever may be the award of a thoughtless derision, 
we do not hesitate in saying that the proposition is an im- 
proper one, and can not be entertained. Especially be- 
cause there is one party concerned in this matter for whom 
no human being is authorized to make any engagements, 
and that is " the Hearer and Answerer of Prayer." There 
is only one class of blessings for which He has given us 
any warrant to pray unconditionally, and these are spirit- 
ual blessings. For strength to resist temptation, to endure 
affliction, and perform well our appointed work in life ; 
for grace to purify our nature, elevate our aims, conquer 
our selfishness and pride, and help us to form a noble char- 
acter, God has authorized and commanded us to pray. 
But for the blessings of this life, for deliverance from 
danger and suffering, for restoration from sickness and for 
long life, we are taught to pray in submission to that high- 
est wisdom which knows what is best for us, and to ap- 
pend to every supplication, however ardent our desire and 
intense our solicitude, " Nevertheless, not as I will, but as 
Thou wilt." This submission is the loftiest attitude of 
prayer. 

At the same time we shrink not from the distinct avow- 
al of the Christian doctrine that it is reasonable and prop- 

1 "No record of coincidences can prove a causal connection, or even sug- 
gest it — unless the instances are exceptionally numerous, and unless other 
causes leading to the result are excluded by the rigid methods of verification." 
— " Prayer : ' The Two Spheres :' They are Two," Contemporary Review, 
Dec, 1873, p. 39. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 31 9 

er to offer prayer for recovery from sickness, and that such 
prayer, offered in submission to the Divine will, may be 
answered. We are not ashamed of the good old faith — 
"the Aberglaube," or superstition, as some are pleased to 
call it — that " the prayer of faith shall save the sick." 
The calmness and serenity of mind which the prayer of 
faith supplies is favorable to recovery. In fact, as " the 
systematic excitation of a definite expectation and hope," 
it has a legitimate place in psycho-therapeuticS, as Feuch- 
tersleben has shown, and even as Dr. Tuke concedes in 
his work on the "Influence of the Mind on the Body." 1 
This "definite expectation and hope" is not a mere illu- 
sion. We have the assurance of Scripture that there is a 
Divine blessing which "giveth wisdom to the wise and 
knowledge to men of understanding," and which may de- 
scend upon the head and the heart of the most skillful 
physician in answer to prayer. Furthermore, it is gener- 
ally admitted by medical men that "as in health certain 
mental states may induce disease, so in disease certain 
mental states may restore health." 2 Now these "mental 
states" may be the subject of Divine influence. Science 
has not dared to shut out the Spirit of God from the realm 
of mind, and therefore restoration to health may be given, 
in this manner at least, in answer to prayer. But no man 
would propose to make the prevalence of such prayer the 
subject of statistical averages. Prayer for the sick can not 
always result in their recovery, for then they would never 
die. Our lives are in the hands of God, and we shall live 
until our work is done, or until we have clearly shown 
that we will not do our work, and our life is a failure and 
a defeat. 

1 See pp. 386-7. 

2 Dr. Tuke, "Influence of the Mind on the Body in Health and Disease," 
p. 351. 



320 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Finally, in the name of our holy religion, we repel with 
scorn the attempt of certain scientists to test the value of 
prayer, and with it also the value of a life of self-denial, 
purity, and piety, by merely temporal, secular, and vis- 
ible results which may be weighed and measured and set 
down in statistical tables. Christianity teaches that the 
present life is a probationary scene. It is a state of trial 
and discipline with a view to the formation of moral char- 
acter. Therefore our principles and our virtues must be 
put to the test. Temptation tries our fortitude ; affliction 
ascertains our submission ; suffering purifies our souls ; 
doubt and mystery give energy to our faith. Amid the 
good and the evil of the present our character has to be 
developed and perfected. There is much to be encoun- 
tered, much to be endured. But as Richard Winter Ham- 
ilton has said, " This discipline is salutary. The furnace 
heat purifies the gold by its rigorous assay. The vine 
prunes until it bleeds that it may bear its richer clus- 
ters. A theatre is raised for lofty struggle and celestial 
dint." The end of all is to make us pure and noble and 
heroic souls. 

The scientists of this age, who are so enamored of inert 
matter and insensate force, may have no eye to see, no 
heart to sympathize with, and no competent faculty by 
which to estimate the value of this blessed vintage; but 
there are souls to whom honor is dearer than life, and wis- 
dom more precious than rubies, and purity more desirable 
than fine gold, who will continue to pray — "Cleanse the 
thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spir- 
it, that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify 
thy holy name." 

So much for the argument against the efficacy of prayer 
from the experiential stand-point. We are compelled to 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 321 

pronounce it a failure. There seems good reason to believe 
that Dr. Tyndall regards it as a failure, for we do not find 
that he any where denies the efficacy of prayer for spir- 
itual blessings. But, like a second Ajax Telemon, he makes 
haste to interpose his ample shield for the defense of his 
unfortunate friends ; he is careful, however, to change the 
entire mode of warfare, and he opens the attack on the 
efficacy of prayer from the theoretical stand-point. 

Dr. Tyndall begins by observing that " the idea of di- 
rect personal volition mixing itself in the economy of nat- 
ure is retreating more and more" in presence of advanc- 
ing science, and anions educated and scientific commu- 
nities there is a growing conviction that " nature is ab- 
solutely uniform," and that her laws are changeless and 
permanent. He takes the ground that all prayer for Di- 
vine interposition " to produce changes in external nat- 
ure," such, for example, as " prayer for rain or for fair 
weather," is irrational, because the answer to such prayer 
would be " a violation of the order of nature," " a mani- 
fest contradiction to natural laws," and in fact " a mir- 
acle" " The dispersion of the slightest mist by the spe- 
cial volition of the Eternal would be as great a miracle . . . 
as the stoppage of an eclipse or the rolling of the St. Law- 
rence up the Falls of Niagara. No act of humiliation, in- 
dividual or national, could call one shower from heaven or 
deflect toward us a single beam of the sun." l 

We have characterized this attack of Dr.Tyndall's as an 
attack on the efficacy of prayer from the theoretical stand- 
point : 1. Because he does not claim that the belief in the 
changeless uniformity of nature is a self-evident truth — 
a direct intuition, either of sense or of reason, which needs 
no proof. 2. Because he does not assert that the absolute 

1 "Fragments of Science," pp. 36-39. 

X 



322 TH % THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

uniformity of nature has been inductively proved, or is 
even capable of verification by experience, since all expe- 
rience, whether of the individual or the race, is necessarily 
limited, and can not, therefore, give a universal truth. All 
that he can say of it is that it is " an assumption " — an 
assumption which all carefully conducted experiments 
have justified, and upon which all successful scientific re- 
search has been based. The majestic fabric of modern 
science has been reared upon this foundation. 

But mark, it is still "an assumption" 1 and the central 
question around- which the battle must be fought is, What 
ground have ive for the assumption that the order of 
nature is so absolutely persistent and changeless that it 
never has been and never can be interfered with by an act 
of intelligent volition f 

Dr. Tyndall has attempted an answer to this question. 
We shall endeavor, first, clearly to comprehend his answer, 
and, secondly, to estimate its logical validity. 

1. He tells us that the belief in a changeless order of 
nature " is a kind of inspiration." " The passage from 
facts to 'principles (that is, the passage from our limited 
experience of uniformity to the affirmation of universal 
and permanent order) is called induction, which in its 
highest form is inspiration." 2 This, however, is poetry, 
and not science. This inductive inference embraces vast- 
ly more in the conclusion than is contained in the prem- 
ises; the antecedent is limited, the consequent is unlim- 
ited ; and the only warrant that Dr. Tyndall has for the 
violation of the most fundamental logical canon is "in- 
spiration." But, whatever Dr. Tyndall may understand 
by this ambiguous phrase, it is certain that his own mind 
is not satisfied, and so he tries again. 

1 "Fragments of Science," p. 40: "The assumed permanence of natural 
laws." 2 Ibid., p. GO. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 323 

2. He tells us that this belief rests upon the long-con- 
tinued observations, registered experiences, and experi- 
mental verifications of a succession of scientific men, as 
Galileo, Torricelli, Pascal, Kepler, and Newton. But here 
again the experiences are limited, and do not justify a 
universal conclusion ; and Dr. Tyndall himself is not sat- 
isfied. He says, " The scientific mind can find no repose 
in the mere registration of sequences in nature. The 
further question obtrudes itself with resistless might, 
Whence come the sequences? What is it that binds the 
consequent with the antecedent in nature ?" What is it, 
we ask with redoubled earnestness and emphasis, which 
authorizes our drawing a universal conclusion from par- 
ticular premises ? " The truly scientific intellect never 
can attain rest until it reaches the forces by w T hich the 
observed succession is produced. . . . Not until the relation 
between the forces and the phenomena has been estab- 
lished is the law of the reason rendered concentric with 
the law of nature, and not until this is effected does the 
mind of the scientific philosopher rest in peace." 1 Here 
we have " the law of the reason " substituted for " the 
highest form of inspiration," and we are curious to learn 
what this " law of the reason " is. Is it the principle or 
law of causality — namely, that " all phenomena present 
themselves to us as the expression of power, and refer us 
to a causal ground ?" But this law of the reason says 
nothing about uniformity. The same power may produce 
a diversity of effects. "Infinitely numerous and various 
universes might have been fashioned by the various dis- 
tribution of the original nebulous matter, although the 
particles of matter should obey the one law of gravity." 2 

1 " Fragments of Science," p. 64. 

2 Jevons, "Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 434. 



324 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

3. And, finally, Dr. Tyndall tells us that " The expecta- 
tion of likeness [i. e., uniformity] in the procession of phe- 
nomena is not that on which the scientific mind founds 
its belief in the order of nature. If the force is perma- 
nent, the phenomena are necessary whether they resemble 
or do not resemble any thing that has gone before. Hence 
in judging of the order of nature our inquiry eventually 
relates to the permanence of force," 1 or, as he elsewhere 
styles it, " the conservation of energy," which means " that 
no power can make its appearance in nature without an 
equivalent expenditure of some other power; that nat- 
ural agents are so related as to be mutually convertible, 
but that no new agency is created." 2 Whether this is 
or is not a correct statement of the principle of the con- 
servation of energy we shall see by and by. And now, 
after having hunted the game through many tortuous pas- 
sages to its final burrow, what have we found ? That the 
ultimate principle which justifies the belief or "assump- 
tion " that the laws of nature are so rigidly inflexible and 
the order of nature is so absolutely uniform that " person- 
al volition can not mingle in or interfere with the economy 
of nature " is the principle of the conservation of energy. 

The answer of Dr. Tyndall is now fully and clearly be- 
fore our mental view, and we are prepared for the consid- 
eration of its logical validity. This answer may be con- 
veniently divided into two propositions. First, personal 
volition, human or Divine, can not intermingle or in any 
way interfere with the economy of nature because her 
laws are inflexible and her order is uniform. Second, 
the ultimate principle which justifies the assumption that 
the laws of nature are absolutely inflexible and the order 

1 ' ' Fragments of Science, " p. 64. 
8 Ibid. p. 38. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 395 

of nature is absolutely uniform is the principle of the con- 
servation of energy. We shall consider this latter prop- 
osition first. 

There are in this proposition three ambiguous terms, 
which have hitherto been the source of serious misappre- 
hension ; and unless we can attain to clearer and more 
definite conceptions, which shall be mutually accepted, the 
controversy will be interminable. These are the terms 
" nature," " laws of nature," and " uniformity of the order 
of nature." We have made the attempt in a previous 
chapter 1 to give precision and definiteness to the concepts 
which these terms should connote. Referring the reader 
to the chapter indicated, we shall here simply restate our 
results. 

1. Nature is the aggregate or totality of all material or 
physical phenomena. 2 " Nature (nascor, to be born) means 
that which is produced or born." 3 

2. A Law of Nature is the statement of a certain uni- 
formity observed in the relations among phenomena. 4 The 
laws of nature are "simply expressions of phenomenal 
uniformities, having no coercive power whatever." 5 

3. The Uniformity of the Order of Nature may mean 
either " uniformity of co-existence " or " uniformity of 
succession." " Uniformity of co-existence " means that 
the same substances must always have the same essential 
properties 6 and the same permanent relations to other sub- 

1 " On the Eelation of God to the World," pp. 187-201. 

2 See Coleridge, "Works," vol. i. pp. 152, 263; Hamilton, " Metaphysics, " 
vol. i. p. 40. 

3 Fleming, "Vocabulary of Philosophy," in loco. 

* See Jevons, "Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 440; Spencer, "First Prin- 
ciples," p. 128. 

5 Carpenter, "Mental Physiology," p. 692 ; see Lewes, "Problems of Life 
and Mind," vol. i. p. 336. 

6 Essential properties "are those which admit neither of intension nor re- 



326 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

stances, as, for example, every molecule of hydrogen must 
have the same properties, the same definite mass, the same 
periodic vibrations, and the same chemical affinities. If 
these were to be altered in the least, it would no longer be 
a molecule of hydrogen. 1 This is uniformity in the ulti- 
mate constitution of nature. " Uniformity of succession " 
means that the same or similar consequents will always be 
found to follow similar antecedents, or " the same causes 
will always be followed by the same effects, 2 as, for exam- 
ple, the combination of carbon and oxygen will always be 
followed by the evolution of heat, and heat will always 
melt ice." This is uniformity in the course of nature or 
the procession of phenomena. Belief in the constancy of 
the course of nature or the uniformity of causation is the 
general expectation that "the future will resemble the 
past." 3 

With a clearer apprehension of the terms, we may now 
discuss the first proposition with more precision, and hope 
to reach a logical conclusion. We approach the discus- 
sion by remarking — 

1. The constancy of the course of nature or the uniform- 
ity of causation is not a self-evident and necessary truth. 
In so far as it is a scientific truth it is purely an induction 
from experience, an experience which is necessarily lim- 
ited, and therefore does not warrant a universal conclu- 

mission of degrees." — Newton, Regula Tertia Philosophandi, "Principia," 
lib. iii. * 

1 Maxwell, "Theory of Heat," p. 310 ; and also in Nature, vol. ii. p. 421. 

2 By " causes " is here meant nothing more than all the antecedent con- 
ditions. The statement makes no real distinction between "causes" and 
"conditions." "We can not predicate of any physical agency that it is 
abstractedly the cause of another. " ' ' Causation is the ivill of God. " — Grove, 
"Correlation and Conservation of Forces," pp. 15, 199. 

3 See Murphy, "Habit and Intelligence," vol. ii. p. 157; "Scientific Basis 
of Faith, "pp. 75, 76; J. S. Mill, "Logic," vol. ii. eh. xxii. § 1. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 327 

sion. There is no rational a priori ground for the as- 
sumption that the same or similar causes (even if we un- 
derstand by physical causes all antecedent conditions) shall 
necessarily produce the same effects. In other words, 
there is no authority for the assertion that the course of 
nature or the procession of phenomena must be absolutely 
uniform. Science has succeeded in establishing a strong 
probability, but it is beyond her power to demonstrate an 
absolute certainty. This is generally conceded, alike by 
physicists and metaphysicians. J. S. Mill says, " The uni- 
formity in the course of events . . . must be received, not 
as a law of the universe, but of that portion of it which is 
within the range of our means of observation, with a rea- 
sonable degree of extension to adjacent cases." 1 "The 
uniformity of causation," says Murphy, " is not a truth of 
the reason, it is known by experience only ; and the truth 
of a conclusion from experience can never be free from 
all possibility of limitation or exception." 2 And Profess- 
or Jevons asserts, " The conclusions of scientific inference 
appear to be always of a hypothetical and purely provis- 
ional nature. Given certain experience, the theory of 
probability yields us the true interpretation of that expe- 
rience, and is the surest guide open to us. But the best 
calculated results which it can give us are never absolute 
probabilities : they are purely relative to the extent of our 
information. It seems to be impossible for us to judge 
how far our experience gives us adequate information of 
the universe as a whole, and of all the forces and phenom- 
ena which can have place therein." 3 

2. It is an immediate fact of consciousness that the will 

1 "Logic."' bk. iii. ch. xvi. See also McCosh, " Intuitions," pp. 275-7. 

2 " Scientific Basis of Faith," p. 79. 

3 " Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 4G5. 



328 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

is a cause which is adequate to the production of a diver- 
sity of effects. Whatever may be true of the world of 
matter, it is certain that within the sphere of our conscious 
personality the relation of cause and effect is not a rela- 
tion of invariable and necessary sequence. Further, it is 
certain that a self-determining agent exists. " Every event 
in the universe of matter is determined by the events which 
precede it, but physical reasonings make it certain that the 
chain of causes and effects can not have been of absolutely 
endless length through past time. There must have been 
a first link of the chain ; there must have been a first act 
of causation ; and this act must have been determined, not 
by any previous act of causation when as yet there was 
none, but by the free self-determining power of the agent. 
The first act of causation we call Creation ; the freely self- 
determining agent we call God." 1 

3. Physical science itself does not teach that the course 
of nature is absolutely uniform ; on the contrary, all the 
conclusions of science lead to the conviction "that the 
universe is ever changing, and that, notwithstanding secu- 
lar recurrences which would pri?nd facie seem to replace 
matter in its original position, nothing in fact ever returns 
or can return to a state of existence identical with a pre- 
vious state." 2 Every theory of the origin of things is 
compelled to assume that an innate tendency to variabil- 
ity is a fundamental fact of nature. This is made appar- 
ent by the reasoning in Spencer's chapters on "The In- 
stability of the Homogeneous " and " The Multiplication 
of Effects." 3 The advocates of .Natural Selection are very 



1 Murphy, "Scientific Basis of Faith," pp. 80 and 49-51 ; Jevons, "Prin- 
ciples of Science," vol. ii. p. 488. 

2 Grove, "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 193. 

3 "First Principles," chs. xiii. and xiv. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 329 

emphatic in the assertion of this " Law of Variation," as 
the cardinal fact upon which turns their doctrine of the 
origin of species, and the whole system on which organic 
life has been developed from the lowest to the highest 
forms. 1 " There is," says Comte, " an irregular variability of 
effect engendered by the great number of different agents 
determining at the same time the same phenomena [me- 
teorological, social, and vital], from which it results in 
the most complicated phenomena that there are not two 
cases precisely alike." "The multiplicity [of the agents] 
renders the effects as irregularly variable as if every cause 
had not been subjected to any previous conditions." 2 Dr. 
Tyndall himself is in fact compelled to surrender the 
doctrine of uniformity in the succession of phenomena. 
He says " if the force be permanent, the phenomena are 
necessary whether they resemble or do not resemble 
any thing that has gone before." 3 But if the phenom- 
ena do not resemble any thing that has gone before, 
how can there be " uniformity " in the succession of phe- 
nomena ? 

4. The uniformity of the constitution of material nat- 
ure, or the principle that the same substances must always 
have the same essential properties, is undoubtedly a self- 
evident and necessary truth, an a priori, rational intuition. 
It is simply a statement in concrete form of the principle 
or law of identity (A = A, or A is not equal to non-A). 
As we have already observed, a substance which ceases to 
have the same essential properties ceases to be the same 
substance ; for substances are only known to us through 
their properties. But this " uniformity of co-existence " is 

1 Wallace, "On Natural Selection," p. 266. 

2 "Positive Philosophy," vol. i. pp. 153-156. 

3 "Fragments of Science," p. 64. 



330 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

distinct from " uniformity of succession," and we can not 
infer the latter from the former. Admitting that the 
same substance must always have the same properties, we 
can not affirm that the same substances will always be col- 
located in the same manner, or distributed in space with 
the same uniformity. In fact, " we can discover nothing 
regular in the distribution of matter through space; we 
can reduce it to no uniformity, to no law." 1 Matter is 
never replaced in its original position ; " nothing repeats 
itself, because nothing can be placed in the same condi- 
tions ; the past is irrevocable." 2 

Even should we say with Sir William Thomson that " mo- 
tion constitutes the very essence of what is commonly called 
matter," still we know with infallible certainty that there 
must be a something that moves, and that this something 
which moves must have ultimately a definite mass (inertia) 
and a measurable velocity ', and that the energy of motion 
to which the power of doing work is due is proportionate 
to the mass multiplied into the square of the velocity. 
Matter, then, is something more than motion. 3 We know 
further that there are different " modes of motion " — tran- 
sitive, rotatory, vibratory, pulsatory, gyratory — and that 
these are undergoing perpetual transformation or conver- 
sion one into the other. And, finally, we know that the 
quantities of visible molar energy, and of invisible molec- 
ular energy (as heat, light, electricit} r , magnetism), are not 
uniform ; on the contrary, the quantity of mechanical en- 
ergy is being continually dissipated — that is, transformed 
into radiant heat, " which may be compared to the waste- 

1 Jevons, "Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 434. 

2 Grove, " Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 24. 

3 "There is one wonderful condition of matter, perhaps its only true 
indication, namely, inertia." — Faraday, "Correlation and Conservation of 
Forces," p. 3G8 ; Maxwell, " Theory of Heat," p. SG. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 33 1 

heap of the universe, 1 ' 1 and uniformly diffused heat will 
not yield a single unit of work. 

The principle of the conservation of energy is there- 
fore subject to limitations which are supplied by the prin- 
ciple of the dissipation of energy. It simply asserts that, 
so far as our observation extends, the whole amount of 
potential and kinetic energy in the universe is invariable, 
but it can not determine whether the amount of vital force, 
or of psychic force, is invariable ; and it is certainly in- 
competent to fix a limitation to the exercise of Creative 
Power. "It is nothing more than an intelligent and well- 
supported denial of the chimera of perpetual motion, and 
that a machine can no more create work than it can create 
matter." 2 In the words of Grove, we can not conceive of 
the production of any new force in the universe "without 
the interposition of Creative Power." 3 

Dr. Tyndall, in his solicitude to exclude all Divine in- 
terposition in the economy of nature, has stated the law of 
the conservation of energy in a form quite different from 
that of his scientific brethren. He says, "The principle 
of conservation is, no creation but infinite conversion;" 4 
and he seems desirous to convey the impression that any 
interposition of God to answer prayer would be a creation 
of physical force, and as much a miracle as the rolling of 
the waters of the St. Lawrence up the Falls of Niagara. 
Dr. Tyndall does not here display his usual fairness and 
candor. Surely he would not assert that the qualitative 
and quantitative combination of the different natural agents 
— such as light, heat, electricity, elasticity of vapors, and 
aerial currents — which determine the fall of a shower of 

1 Stewart, "Physics," p. 357. 

2 Ibid. p. 355. 

3 "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 195. 

4 "Fragments of Science," p. 39. 



332 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

rain, would be a creation of energy ; or that the disposi- 
tion of the meteorological, physical, chemical, vital, and 
psychical conditions which result in the cure of the sick, 
would be as much a miracle as "the stoppage of an 
eclipse;" for these natural agents are more or less under 
the control of man. But suppose it were granted that all 
interposition of God in the economy of nature must be re- 
garded as miraculous, would he deny the possibility of 
miracles even if they should involve a creation of energy ? 
Because we can not by any of our mechanical arrange- 
ments create energy, does it therefore follow that God can 
not create energy ? Dr. Tyndall will not say this. " If 
you ask who is to limit the outgoings of Almighty power, 
my answer is — not I." l 

It will be seen presently that Dr. Tyndall admits that 
the interference of personal volition in the economy of 
nature is not forbidden by the law of the conservation of 
energy. The point we now insist upon is that he has not 
succeeded in showing that this principle is an absolute and 
universal law of nature. We have already seen that it is 
limited and conditioned by the law of the dissipation of 
energy, and that in reality " it is merely a kind of mov- 
able equilibrium between supply and destruction." 2 By 
no experimental evidence has it been shown that it holds 
true in the realm of vital dynamics and psycho-dynamics. 
There are able scientific men who question its absolute 
certainty even in the realm of physics. Professor Brooke 
says that "the amount of energy in the world is un- 
changed, the sum of the actual or kinetic and potential 
energies being a constant qnantitj^has been by some writers 
overstrained. It may be taken as a postulate, and is prob- 
ably true; but it is a proposition equally incapable of 

1 "Fragments of Science," p. 420. 2 Nature, vol. viii. p. 280. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 333 

proof and of disproof." 1 To the same effect are the 
words of Sir John Herschel, 2 and still more recently of 
Professor Jevons. 3 

" Nature," says Dr. Colin, of Breslau, " is an equation 
with very many unknown quantities. It is the work of nat- 
ural science to determine the value of these quantities. 
Some believe it never will be possible to solve the equa- 
tion, since in it factors occur which can not be determined." 
Until this is done, it is simply presumptuous for Dr. Tyn- 
dall to pretend to know all the antecedents which deter- 
mine the complex phenomena of nature, and dogmatically 
to affirm that " no new agency is created," and no " inter- 
ference of Divine agency" can be permitted. " Our knowl- 
edge of things is finite, while our ignorance is infinite ; and 
we must consequently regard all known lines of causation 
as being liable to be cut through by unknown ones." For 
aught we know to the contrary one of the unknown fac- 
tors in the equation may be " personal volition," may be the 
ceaseless energy of the Divine Will sustaining and carry- 
ing nature forward through successive stages toward a pre- 
destinated goal. The foremost physicists do not deny that 
there may possibly be forms of energy which are neither 
potential nor kinetic. 4 We venture to assert with Prof. 
Challis that will, or personal energy, is neither the one 
nor the other, but the source of both. Mind is the orig- 
inator, and matter is the recipient of force. 5 

We sum up what has been said in the preceding para- 
graphs on the uniformity of nature in the following words : 

1 Nature, vol. vi. p. 125. 

2 "Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 4G9. 

3 "Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. 83. 

4 Maxwell, "Theory of Heat, "p. 92. 

5 Challis's " Mathematical Principles of Physics," p. 107 ; Herschel, "Fa- 
miliar Lectures on Science," p. 467. 



334 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

We admit that the uniformity of the constitution of nat- 
ure is a self-evident and necessary truth. We admit also 
that, so far as our experience extends, the uniformity of 
the course of nature must be admitted as a scientific truth, 
for to deny this would be to deny the possibility of all 
science, inasmuch as all science is prevision. But at the 
same time we maintain that the conclusions of scientific 
inference must always be of a hypothetical and purely 
provisional character, because it is impossible for us to 
judge with absolute certainty how far our experience gives 
us adequate information of the universe as a whole, and 
of all the forces and phenomena which can have place 
therein. 1 The conservation of energy, for example, is a 
very probable hypothesis which accords satisfactorily with 
the experiments of scientific men during a few years past, 
but it would be a gross misconception of the nature of 
scientific inference to suppose that it is certain in the same 
sense that a proposition in geometry is certain, or that any 
fact of immediate consciousness is certain. 2 

Admitting the principle' of the uniformity of nature as 
a hypothetical inference from a limited experience, we ad- 
vance to the main position of Dr. Tyndall, namely, that 
personal volition can not mingle in or interfere with the 
procession of phenomena in nature. 

Dr. Tyndall admits the reality of " personal volition." 
We have not discovered in his writings any indications of 

1 " It is pretty much the same to the greater number even of the instruct- 
ed hearers whether a man of science say 'I know' or 'I suppose;' they 
only ask after the result and the authority by which it is supported, not the 
grounds of the doubts. It is thus not to be wondered at if earnest investi- 
gators do not willingly shock the confidence of their readers in what the for- 
mer may think true and demonstrable by the enumeration of ideas of the cor- 
rectness of ivhich they do not feel themselves quite secure.'' 1 — Helmholtz, "On 
John Tyndall," in Nature, vol. x. p. 301. 

2 Jevons, " Principles of Science," vol. ii. p. iGQ. 



SPECIAL PROVIDEXCE AXD PRAYER. 335 

the tendency manifested by some of bis scientific asso- 
ciates to reduce volition to a form of physical energy. 
He grants "the power of free-will in man," 1 but he seems 
unwilling to admit that free-will can exert any control- 
ling, modifying, or determining influence on the procession 
of phenomena. "Assuming the efficacy of prayer to pro- 
duce changes in external nature, it necessarily follows that 
natural laws are more or less at the mercy of man's voli- 
tion, and no conclusion founded on the assumed perma- 
nence of those laws would be worthy of confidence." 2 
But are not natural laws more or less subject to man's vo- 
lition? Does he not act upon the chain of cause and 
effect in nature, and alter the procession of phenomena on 
earth? Certainly he can and does control and direct the 
forces of nature. He can so collocate and adjust the 
properties and forces of matter as to accomplish the pur- 
poses of his intelligence, and bring about new results 
which would not otherwise have been produced. That 
man has materially modified the physical geography of 
the fftobe can not be denied. He has altered the clima- 
tal condition of whole tracts of country, and changed the 
physiognomy of the globe. The rain-fall has been changed 
by the felling of timber or the planting of trees. 3 He has 
extended or circumscribed the geographical boundaries of 
plants and animals. He has learned to control the me- 
chanical, chemical, and electric forces. When he lifts a 
stone from the earth and suspends it in the air, or locks 
it in the arch that spans the river, the law of gravitation 
is subordinated to the higher law of intelligent purpose. 
By the collocation and adjustment of mechanical forces 

1 "Fragments of Science," p. 40. 

2 Ibid. p. 40. 

3 Marsh, "Man and Nature," chs. i. and iii. ; Lyell, "Principles of Ge- 
ology," pp. 713-717. 



336 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

he overcomes the resistance of winds and tides, and guides 
his vessel across the trackless deep. He seizes the light- 
ning in the clouds and guides it harmless to the earth, 
and sends the electric current along the telegraphic wire 
to chronicle his deeds and report his thoughts at the ends 
of the earth. He loosens the most intricate combinations 
of elementary substances, and recomposes them in new 
forms of the highest value in medicine and the fine arts. 
He solidifies carbonic acid ; freezes water at the tropics, 
and even in red-hot crucibles in the Temperate Zone. He 
also modifies and changes the development of vegetable 
life, obliterating thorns and spines, altering the color and 
size of flowers, and the flavor and nutritive character of 
fruits. And, finally, he has wrought marvelous changes 
in the form, size, habits, and instincts of the animal crea- 
tion. 1 Thus in numberless ways does man control, modify, 
and subordinate nature to accomplish the purposes of his 
intelligence ; but we can not see with Dr. Tyndall how 
this renders scientific " conclusions founded on the as- 
sumed permanence of natural law unworthy of confi- 
dence." 

There is a vacillation in Dr. Tyndall's treatment of this 
aspect of the subject which renders it difficult to fix his 
exact position. Does he intend to assert that "personal 
volition" can not in the slightest degree change the suc- 
cession of phenomena? Will he say that man does not, 
and that God can not control and modify and subordinate 
natural forces so as to bring about new and special results ? 
Unless he is prepared to assert this in the most unequivo- 
cal manner, the whole superstructure of his argument falls 
to the ground. If it is granted that human volition can 

1 Wallace, "On Natural Selection," pp. 324-326; Lyell, "Principles of 
Geology," pp. 681-688, 579-590. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AXD PRAYER. 337 

change the procession of phenomena, and " alter within 
certain limits the current of events," then a fortiori we 
may conclude that Divine volition may also interfere in 
the economy of nature to answer prayer. At one time 
Dr. Tyndall insinuates that " our notion" (that is, the Chris- 
tian's conception) " of the Power which rules the universe" 
is a " mere fanciful or ignorant enlargement of human 
power, ... a mythologic imagination which pictures a 
being able and willing to do any and every conceivable 
thing." ' At another time he admits that " the theory that 
the system of nature is under the control of a Being 
who changes phenomena in compliance with the prayers 
of men is, in my opinion, a perfectly legitimate one. . . . 
It is a matter of experience that an earthly father, who is 
at the same time both wise and tender, listens to the re- 
quests of his children, and if they do not ask amiss, takes 
pleasure in granting their requests. We know also that 
this compliance extends to the alteration, within certain 
limits, of the current of events on earth. With this sug- 
gestion offered by our experience, it is no departure from 
scientific method to place behind natural phenomena a 
universal Father, who in answer to the prayers of his 
children alters the currents of phenomena. Thus far 
theology and science go hand in hand. The conception 
of an ether, for example, trembling with the waves of 
light, is suggested by the ordinary phenomena of wave- 
motion in water and in air ; and in like manner the con- 
ception of personal volition in nature is suggested by the 
ordinary action of man upon earth. I therefore urge no 
impossibilities, though you constantly charge me with do- 
ing so. I do not even urge inconsistency, but, on the con- 
trary, frankly admit that you have as good a right to place 

1 " Frngments of Science," p. 421. 

Y 



338 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

your conception at the root t of phenomena as I have to 
place mine." 1 

If this concession is made in good faith, and really 
means any thing at all, it covers the whole ground. It is 
neither unscientific nor irrational to place behind natural 
phenomena a universal Father who alters the current of 
phenomena in answer to prayer. But this is not the con- 
ception which Dr. Tyndall places behind the phenomena 
of nature. His conception is that of a permanent force, 
which is " under the circumstances necessary" producing 
•" an unerring order which in our experience knows no ex- 
ception." This brings us to the third and last question. 

3. How can the scientific conception of the force which 
is manifested in the phenomena of nature be brought 
into harmony with the idea of God as revealed in the 
religious consciousness ? 

We are now in the very heart of what we have character- 
ized as the debatable ground which lies between science 
and religion, where questions are mooted concerning the 
relation between God and nature. 

On the one side we have the facts of external sensible 
experience — the statical phenomena of nature as mass, 
extension, position, and distance — conditions essential to 
the action or manifestation of force ; then the dynamical 
phenomena of nature as rotatory, vibratory, pulsatory, gy- 
ratory, and transitive motion, which to our reason, not to our 
senses, are manifestations of force. Science observes the 
uniformity of relations among these phenomena — uni- 
formities of resemblance, co-existence, and succession, and 
calls these uniformities laws of nature. This is all that 
science can do, all that men of exact science claim to be 
able to do. 

1 Contemporary Revieio, July, 1872. 



/SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 339 

On the other side we have the facts of internal experi- 
ence — the consciousness of effort, the sense of power and 
freedom, the idea of right and wrong, the feeling of de- 
pendence, of duty, and of obligation, the consciousness of 
moral responsibility and of moral desert, and the anticipa- 
tion of a future retribution. These to our reason are the 
revelation of a righteous Lawgiver and Ruler who is over 
us, by whom we are obliged, and to whom we must ac- 
count. This is the theoretic basis and necessary presup- 
position of all religion. 

And now speculative philosophy steps in and endeavors 
to reduce these concepts of science and religion to an ul- 
timate unity. It endeavors to construe in thought the 
nature of that relation between the force manifested in 
nature and the moral Ruler revealed in conscience. There- 
fore it asks the questions, What is force ? What is life ? 
What is mind ? 

If we say that force is as inherent and essential to matter 
as extension and inertia are, and that life and mind are 
but modes of force, we are on the high-road to mechanical 
Deism, if not material Atheisrn. If we say that matter 
is itself only a function of force, and that force is the ul- 
timate of all ultimates, then the distinction between finite 
existence and the infinite Being is a merely verbal dis- 
tinction, and we must yield to the seductions of Panthe- 
ism^ which under this aspect of it is but another name for 
Atheism. But if we say that Spirit is the originator and 
matter the recipient of force, or " the recipient of impulse 
and energy," and that the immanent God is the life of all 
nature, we are pure Theists. We have now a " workable 
theory" by which we can satisfactorily interpret the uni- 
verse. 

This, however, is not the conception of Dr. Tyndall. The 



340 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

power which he sees in nature is a force which is inherent 
and essential to matter, and " in that matter he sees the 
promise and the potency of all terrestrial life," but not of 
all life, for " religion is life." The Power which is reveal- 
ed as the object of the "religious emotions" is a Power 
which works for "righteousness," and is "intelligent" as well 
as " ethical." This Power he seems to regard as distinct 
from the force which produces the necessary phenomena 
of nature. But whence does he obtain this conception of 
force? He writes as though he had seen force, or cog- 
nized force, by some one of the senses. We claim that 
force is " a subtile mental conception, and not a sensuous 
perception or phenomenon;" 1 it is a metaphysical idea, "a 
postulate of reason applied to nature." We venture the 
assertion that the physicist has not the remotest conception 
of force except as a datum of consciousness. The senses 
give us only phenomena. All we perceive is motion, 
change, succession. " All we know or see is the effect ; 
we do not see force." 2 So say all physicists as well as 
all metaphysicians. "Experiences of force are not de- 
rived from any thing else, . . . and the force by which 
we ourselves produce changes, and which serves to sym- 
bolize the cause of changes in general, is the final dis- 
closure of all analysis." 3 Whenever, therefore, Dr. Tyn- 
dall attempts to account for motion and change in ex- 
ternal nature by assuming the existence of invisible, im- 
ponderable forces, he is interpreting nature in terms of 
consciousness — we mean that consciousness of personal cau- 
sation which we have when we put forth effort with an in- 
tention thereby to accomplish an end. Force is known to 

1 Grove, "Correlation and Conservation of Forces," p. 20. 

2 Ibid. 

3 Spencer, "First Principles," pp. 235, 252. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 341 

us by immediate consciousness as a function of our own 
mind — that is, mind acting in will is conscious of itself as 
a force. We are able to conceive of force in no other way. 
"Force dissociated from personality and will must be for- 
ever incomprehensible by us, because it would be some- 
thing contradictory to our consciousness." 1 If we may 
not regard will-force as " the type of all the force in nat- 
ure," then the physicist knows nothing about it, does not 
know there is any force, and the only consistent course is 
to unite with Comte in eradicating the word from the 
vocabulary of science. 

In the only case in which we are admitted into any im- 
mediate personal knowledge of the origin of force, we find 
it connected with volition, with will, with motion, with in- 
tellect, and with all the attributes of mind in which per- 
sonality consists. 2 We must, therefore, conclude that all 
force is mind-force, is spirit-force, and that the forces which 
animate nature are spiritual. Either the force manifested 
in the universe is the force of a self-existent and self-de- 
termining Intelligent Will, or we can form no conception 
of it whatever. 

When we have once arrived at the conception of force 
as an expression of will, which we derive from our expe- 
rience of its production, " the universal and constantly 
sustaining agency of the Deity is recognized in every 
phenomenon of the universe." 3 " The laws of nature 
are the laws which God in his wisdom prescribes to his 
own acts. His universal presence is the necessary con- 
dition of any course of events. His universal agency 
the only origin of all efficient force." 4 The persistence 

1 Challis, "Mathematical Principles of Physics, "p. 681. 

2 Herschel, " Familiar Lectures on Science,'' p. 461. 

3 Carpenter, "Mental Physiology," p. 703. 

4 Whewell, "Astronomy and Physics," p. 224. 



342 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of force is the permanence of the Divine agency, and 
the deepest ground of oar faith in the uniformity and 
changelessness of natural laws is the immutability of 
God. 

We come, then, at last, to this, that the Power which, is 
manifested in nature is the God who is revealed in con- 
sciousness, and that He is at once a God of power, of 
righteousness, and of love. In prayer, the intelligent 
believer does not invoke a different Power from that 
which is manifested in all the forms of physical energy 
which were manifested in nature ; he does but invoke 
the same Power and the only Power which is the source 
of all causation and produces all the processions of phe- 
nomena. 

The perpetual immanence and ceaseless action of God 
in nature is the source of all force and all law. There 
is no force and no law besides and apart from this. All 
our conceptions of necessity and uniformity, of special prov- 
idence and miracle, are merely relative conceptions which 
result from our imperfect vision. These are. all swallowed 
up and lost in the Divine Immensity. God is Power. 
God is Law. God is Love. Love is the motive, Law is 
the method, and Power is the hand manifested in all the 
changes of the universe. " The devout feel that wher- 
ever God ? s hand is, there is miracle ; and it is simply an 
undevoutness which imagines that only where miracle is 
can there be the hand of God." 

Let us say with Goethe, " Nature is the living garment 
of God," which at once reveals and conceals his mysteri- 
ous splendors. In our days of darkness and sorrow and 
danger there are vouchsafed to us clearer gleamings of the 
Creative Spirit through the veil of nature in answer to 
prayer. These we may call " special providences," and 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 343 

even "miracles," if we please, but lit us not fall into the 
error of supposing that we have seen more of God than 
in the budding of the leaf or the blooming of the flower 
in the time of spring. " There are diversities of opera- 
tions, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." 1 

1 1 Cor. xii. 6. 



344 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD, 



CHAPTER X. 

MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
I. ITS GROUND. THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 

" That they may seek the Lord, and truly feel after Him and find Him, 
though He is not far from any one of us, for in Him we live and move and 
are; as certain of your own poets have said, 'For we are his offspring.'''" 
—St. Paul. 

' ' Jove's presence fills all space, upholds this ball ; 
All need his aid, his power sustains us all — 
For we his offspring are." — Aratus. 

" Thou art able to enforce obedience from all frail mortals, 
Because we are all thine offspring." — Cleanthes. 

From the fundamental truth that God is the Creator and 
Conservator of the universe, and that his providence pre- 
sides over and directs the historic development of human- 
ity, Christian doctrine advances, in a natural and logical 
order, to the recognition of the more direct and personal 
relations between God and each individual human soul. 
" He is not far from any one of us, for in Him we live 
and move and are." God is intimately near to the hu- 
man soul. God is the immanent ground of men's spirit- 
ual being. God is the Father of the human spirit. There- 
fore God is manifested in man — in the constitution of his 
moral nature, and in the susceptibilities, the aspirations, 
the longings, the hopes and fears of his spiritual being ; 
and God manifests Himself to man by an inward illumi- 
nation — "the true light which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world." Contemplate these relations on 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 345 

the Divine side, and you have the foundation of all moral 
government ; study them on the human side, and you have 
the foundation of all religion, for religion is a mode of 
thought, of feeling, and of action determined by the con- 
sciousness of our relations to God. 

All Christian teaching proceeds upon the assumption 
that there exist in all men the elements of a religious 
consciousness. The recognition of some relation to an un- 
seen moral Personality is a universal fact of human nat- 
ure. The feeling of dependence, the sense of obligation, 
the sentiment of reverence, the tendency to worship, the 
apprehension of a future reward or punishment — these are 
the common characteristics of man. The untutored sav- 
age, the half-civilized pagan, the ancient philosopher, the 
modern scientist, all alike betray the consciousness of some 
mysterious bond which holds them fast to the unseen Pow- 
er which controls the destinies of men. With this senti- 
ment of the Divine there is associated in all human minds 
an instinctive yearning after the Invisible, a conscious sus- 
ceptibility of our spiritual nature to the influences of the 
higher world, and a reaching out of the human spirit to- 
ward the Infinite, which prompt man to seek for a fuller 
knowledge and a deeper communion. Christianity assures 
us that this religious consciousness may, by a loving recep- 
tion of the truth and a loyal allegiance to duty, be raised 
into a living Jcoinonia — a living fellowship with and a 
conscious participation of the Divine life. Man may 
know God, not simply by verbal instruction, not merely 
through the symbolism of nature, or the providential un- 
folclings of human history, or even the moral attributes of 
his own spiritual being, but by an exalted and immediate 
consciousness. " The pure in heart shall see God" by an 
inward vision of wondrous power and glory, in which they 



346 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

sliall know God, and be as fully assured of his personal 
love and guidance as of the love and guidance of any 
human friend. 

Now there is a natural order in which the knowledge 
of God is clearly differentiated and fully developed in the 
human mind ; and this order is distinctly recognized and 
noted in the words of St. Paul — " That they may seeh God, 
and truly feel God, and actually find God." 

1. There is an earnest inquiry {^r\ruv) — a search after 
God. This is the effort of reflective thought to attain a 
more exact and definite conception of that Power and In- 
telligence which the spontaneous consciousness of man 
immediately and instinctively affirms as the ground and 
cause and law of the created universe. 

2. There is a real feeling (x^rj'Xacpav) of God — an awak- 
ening consciousness of some near relation to God, ex- 
cited by the voice of conscience and the spiritual affinities 
and yearnings of the soul. There is, as it were, a " touch- 
ing" of the living God 1 — the sense of a living bond which 
holds man to God, not merely by a consciousness of de- 
pendence and obligation, but a spiritual nexus, a real filia- 
tion, which enables man to articulate the wondrous w T ords, 
"We are the offspring of God" 

3. There is an actual finding (svpiGicuv) of God — that 
higher religious consciousness in which the pure and ear- 
nest soul attains a personal knowledge, and enters into a 
beatifying communion with "the Father of the human 
spirit." This direct "manifestation of God" in its high- 
est form is the peculiar glory of that new and divine 
life of the soul communicated through Christian faith, for 
which all antecedent knowledges and experiences, whether 
of the individual mind or of collective humanity, are a 
preparation and a discipline. 

1 " cipaye \p)]\af))<Teiav aiirov" = truly feel or touch Him. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 347 

This inspired statement of the order in which the con- 
ception of God as a determinate mode of thought is 
evolved in the human mind is exactly verified by the his- 
tory of reflective thought as presented in Greek philoso- 
phy. Reflective thought began with Thales in Asia Mi- 
nor and Pythagoras in Lower Italy. The Ionian and Ital- 
ian schools commenced most naturally with the objective 
phenomena of nature, and sought for the apxv — the first 
principle and cause of all that appears. Their question 
was not, Is there a first principle and cause ? but What is 
the first principle and cause ? The orderly phenomena of 
the universe presented themselves to their minds as the 
expression of power and thougJit as certainly as they do 
to ours ; and their endeavor was to construe this intuition 
in logical form and give it articulate expression. It is 
true their method was at first defective, and the results at- 
tained were consequently often erroneous. Still their men- 
tal effort must have been unconsciously governed by those 
fixed laws of cognition which constrain all minds to regard 
all phenomena as the expression of power, and all orderly 
arrangement as the utterance of thought. If in the realm 
of objective things they fixed upon a single element as 
that out of which all things else were evolved, that first 
seed of things was either a living, potential energy, or it 
was associated with and animated by a living soul. 1 Or if 
guided by analogy, they conceived the universe as a living- 
organism, 

"Whose body nature is, and God the soul." 

The informing principle was still an intelligent Power. 
So that at the end of this period of inquiry we find that 
Anaxagoras distinctly articulates the word which his coun- 

1 See Hitter, "History of Philosophy," vol. i. p. 200. 



348 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

trymen had half unconsciously recognized, " the apx>h or 
first principle, is mind, intellect, vovg." . 

From this point we date a new era in philosophy. The 
Socratic school turned from the contemplation of external 
nature, and commenced the study of mind. Man finds 
his rational nature in changeless correlation to a moral 
law. There are within his spiritual nature the ideas of 
justice, of truth, of purity, and of goodness. These ideas 
of the human reason reflect the character of its Author 
and Source, and we can not refrain from ascribing these 
attributes in their most perfect form to the Maker of the 
human soul. God is now regarded as the Moral Ruler 
of the world. Man becomes conscious of obligation to a 
personal Lawgiver, and of accountability to a personal 
Judge. He feels that he has spiritual susceptibilities and 
longings for a Divine inspiration. He believes that man 
"may become conscious of the wisdom and the love of 
the Deity," and that there are " Divine secrets which may 
not be penetrated by man, but which are imparted to 
those who consult, who adore, and who obey God." 1 
Yielding to these spiritual affinities of the soul, he seeks 
God in prayer. 2 He desires to come near to God, to feel 
his presence and inspiration, and to become "assimilated 
to God," by " becoming holy, just, and wise." 3 

Whether any of the ancient philosophers attained to 
that high religious consciousness in which God is actually 
" found," so that He becomes the object of a real love and 
confidence, and a refuge amid the storms and adversities 
of life, is a question we may not be competent to answer. 

1 "Memorabilia," bk. i. ch. iv. 

' 2 " Timasus," ch. viii. ; also " Second Alcibiades," which is a discourse on 
prayer. 

3 " Laws," bk. v. ch. i. ; bk. x. ch. xii. ; " Thesetetes," § 83. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 349 

To attempt an answer may be deemed presumptuous. If 
the Divine declaration that " every one that asketh re- 
ceiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that 
knocketh it shall be opened," is of universal application, 
then it may, at least, be hoped that the prayer of Socrates 
was answered, and the desire of Plato was fulfilled, and 
the aspiration of Epictetus w T as satisfied in some degree. 
Socrates certainly expressed the belief that " he was moved 
by a certain Divine and spiritual impulse." 1 Plato held 
that the highest form of philosophy is the love of the Su- 
preme Good — that is, God; and that "a man who is just 
and pious and entirely good is loved of God." 2 And 
Epictetus taught that " if we always remember that in all 
we do God stands by as a witness^ we shall not err in our 
prayers and actions, and we shall have God dwelling with 
us." Do not these utterances remind us vividly of the 
Saviour's promise — " If a man love me, he will keep my 
words, and my Father will love him, and Ave will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him ?" Can we doubt 
that these words express the Divine feeling and the Divine 
procedure toward the heathen world % Was not God their 
Father as well as ours ? Was not Christ their Saviour as 
well as our Saviour ? . May we not hope that the redeem- 
ing Word enlightened their minds, and the sanctifying 
Spirit touched their hearts ? 

It will be obvious to the thoughtful reader that this or- 
der, in which the definite knowledge of God is attained, is 
the reverse of that in which the idea of God is manifested 
in the spontaneous consciousness of the individual and the 
race. The former is analytical, the latter is synthetical. 
The idea of God as the ground and cause and reason of 
all existence is immediately given in spontaneous thought. 

] " Apology," § 19. 2 " Philebus," § 84. 



350 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The conception of God as pure Spirit, as the eternal Rea- 
son, the righteous Will, the supreme Good, the omnipres- 
ent Ruler of the universe, and the Father of humanity, 
is gradually developed in reflective thought. The first is 
a metaphysical datum, standing at the commencement of 
all inquiry, the second is a logical qiicesitum which is 
reached at the end of a process of rational inquiry. Spon- 
taneous consciousness begins with an indeterminate feel- 
ing, a mysterious presentiment of the Divine ; it proceeds 
through simple intuition, and ends with affirmative thought. 
Reflective consciousness begins by questioning our primi- 
tive beliefs, and asking for their logical grounds ; it pro- 
ceeds by analytic and inductive reasoning, and may result 
in the union of logical convictions, with determinate af- 
fections — an intelligent reverence and an appreciating 
love. Spontaneous thought is involuntary, and must nec- 
essarily result in faith. Reflective thought is voluntary, 
and may result in error, doubt, and skepticism. There- 
fore the method by which we attain to a clear and deter- 
minate knowledge of God — by which we really feel, and 
actually find God — may be defeated, interrupted, and 
marred by sin. Unholy passion and a perverted will may 
materially vitiate the process by which the human rea- 
son reaches a logical conviction of the being of a God. 
The ungodly man may desire that the First Cause shall 
have no moral attributes. The sinner may imagine that 
the Deity is " altogether such an one as himself." The 
fool may say in his heart, " There is no God." While the 
idea of God presents itself naturally and necessarily in 
spontaneous thought, there may be an " unwillingness to 
retain God in the knowledge." And even where God is 
know r n, He may not be honored and gratefully recognized ; 
and, as a consequence, the " understanding may be darken- 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 351 

ed." Swallowed up of uncleanness and Inst, the abandon- 
ed man may " barter tlie truth of God for lies," and event- 
ually " worship and serve the creature more than the Crea- 
tor." Still man can not utterly relegate himself from all 
sense of obligation, and all feeling of dependence upon 
God. He can not sever the link which binds him to his 
Maker. He can not wholly extinguish in his heart the 
sense of the Divine, nor eradicate from his reason the 
ideas which, in their spontaneous, unimpeded development, 
reveal to him the personal Lawgiver and Judge. Where 
there is any rectitude of purpose, any sincere love for 
truth, there will be, in a proportionate measure, the true 
knowledge of God. And the pure mind may assuredly 
rise to that higher religious consciousness in which doubt 
and uncertainty are swallowed up in an inward vision of 
his glory. 

Here, then, we have the rational foundation for moral 
government, and the ultimate ground of all religion. The 
possibility of knowing God, the obligation to reverence 
and obey God, the power to do the will of God, the sus- 
ceptibility of the human heart for Divine inspiration and 
Divine communing, are all grounded upon the correla- 
tions between God and man. "God is not far from any 
one of us, for in Him we live and move and are ; as cer- 
tain of your own poets have said, ' For we are his off- 
spring?" 

■ 1. The relation between God and man is a relation of 
contiguity. God is perpetually near to man. "He is 
not far from any one of us." The sacred Scriptures not 
only teach the ubiquity of God, but they emphasize the im- 
mediateness of the Divine presence in relation to man. 
'•Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou 



352 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the ut- 
termost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead 
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Thou hast beset 
me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me." 
No man can escape from God. We may retire to the re- 
motest parts of the earth, and take up our abode in the 
most solitary isle ; we may press our way into the deepest 
recesses of the primeval forest, to spots where the foot of 
man has never trod, and on which the light of heaven has 
never shone, and where solitude has held its undisturbed 
reign ever since the morning of creation, and the con- 
viction that " God is in this place 5 ' will relieve the lone- 
liness, and hold us fast within the grasp of his govern- 
ment and laws. Let human thought take to itself the 
wings of imagination and pierce the heavens, let it travel 
on through the immensity of space until it has reached the 
confines of the universe, let it alight on one of the outer- 
most stars which seem to stand as sentinels at the very 
outposts of creation, and looking out upon the depths of 
space, there shall be heard the voice of God toning on 
throughout the fathomless abyss, " Can any hide himself 
in secret places that I shall not see V " Do not I fill heaven 
and earth ? saith the Lord." God is not far from any one 
of us. He is the "Ever NearT Nearer to us than the air 
we breathe, nearer than the light which reveals surrounding 
objects, nearer than our body, the living vesture of the soul, 
is God. In the words of the Persian oracle," God is nearer 
to thee than thou art unto thyself." As the Infinite Mind is 
present to all rational beings, so are they all present to Him. 
God is omniscient. The thoughts, feelings, and actions of 
all men are immediately and directly known by Him. " O 
Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou know- 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 353 

est my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest 
my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my 
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For 
there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou 
knowest it altoo-ether." The first condition of a moral 
government is found in the nearness, the contiguity of God 
to every human soul, and the immediate and infallible 
knowledge which He consequently must possess of every 
human thought and act. 

2. The relation between God and man is a relation of 
immanency. "In Him we live and move and are" (lajuiv, 
— have conscious being). Our life, our power, our con- 
sciousness are from God, through God, and in God. 
This relation is manifestly something more immediate 
than the relation of contiguity. It is the present, instant, 
ceaseless relation of Divine efficiency. This is involved 
in the very idea of the creature. If man is the creature of 
God, he has not only his beginning, but his continuance of 
existence by a real and immediate causality. God alone 
possesses true life — " life in Himself" — He alone is really 
self-existent, our life and our being are continually derived 
from Him. If we were without God, and entirely isolat- 
ed from Him, we could not live or move or even exist. 
God is every where, not virtually but actually. He per- 
vades and interpenetrates all existences without displacing 
them in space or disturbing their operations. His infinite 
essence underlies all the principles and powers of all cre- 
ated existences; they all move within the range of his 
presence, and act within the sphere of his energy. And 
God is not only present immediately to man, but his mighty 
will sustains man in existence every moment, vitalizing his 
organism, endowing him with power, illuminating his rea- 
son, and inspiring him with knowledge. God is immanent 

Z 



354 TEE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

in man, and man is immanent in God. " To us there is but 
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in 
Him." x — " One God and Father of all, who is above all, 
and through all, and in you all." 2 — "The same God who 
worketh all in all." 3 Our life is from God and in God. 
Our power to energize is from God and constantly sus- 
tained by God. We consciously know in and through 
God, who so illuminates our reason that we can interpret 
the symbolism of nature. " God teacheth man knowl- 
edge." " He giveth wisdom to the wise and prudence to 
men of understanding." " There is a spirit in man, and 
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understand- 
ing." The reason of man is a beam of the eternal reason. 
" The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord." All good 
desires, all noble impulses, all power to resist temptation 
and perform heroic acts of endurance and suffering, are 
from God. " Every good and every perfect gift cometh 
down from above, from the Father of Lights." 4 

The constant, ceaseless dependence of all rational exist- 
ence on God for vitality, for power, and for consciousness 
must be maintained, if we would be faithful to the plain 
language of Scripture. We are aware that fears of a pan- 
theistic perversion has led some men, without reason, to 
refine upon the language of Scripture. By the expres- 
sion "m Him" (lv ai/roT), we are, they say, to understand 
"with Him." But lv avry does not mean "with Him" or 
" through Him." The most natural grammatical construc- 

1 1 Cor. viii. 6. 2 Eph. iv. 6. 3 1 Cor. xii. 6. 

4 " Without God there is no great man. It is He who inspires us with 
great ideas and exalted designs. When you see a man superior to his pas- 
sions, happy in adversity, calm amid surrounding storms, can you forbear to 
confess that these qualities are too exalted to have their origin in the little 
individual whom they ornament ? A god inhabits every virtuous man. and 
without God there is no virtue/' — Seneca, "Epistles," 41, 78. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 355 

tion is " in Him/' and this suits best the logical connection. 
The Uncreated is the only self-existent being. All other 
existences are derived and dependent, and therefore can 
not be self-existent. The Supreme can not communicate 
the attribute of self-existence any more than the attribute 
of infinity. A finite existence can not be at once depend- 
ent and independent. Of mind, as well as of matter, it is 
equally true that the sole ground of its continuing to be, 
as well as its beginning to be, is in the Almighty will and 
power directly and ceaselessly put forth. The direct agency 
of God sustaining conscious life is a universal, constant, 
profound reality. 1 

It may be objected that in maintaining these views we 
are in danger of sacrificing the personality of man. It 
may be asked, How can we sustain the antithesis between 
the I and Thou of a commandment or of a prayer? How 
can we reconcile human self-determination with absolute 
dependence upon God? How can we conceive the possi- 
bility of sin — the possibility of a creature dependent every 
moment on God for power, acting in opposition to the 
mind and will of God ? 

These are questions of profound significance; they are 
also questions of extreme difficulty. Our reason stag- 
gers under their weight. We tremble in the presence 
of the mystery of evil. It is obvious that these ques- 
tions involve the deeper question as to the causal connec- 
tion of God with his creation, which all men confess is an 
insoluble and impenetrable mystery. The feeling of de- 
pendence on the one hand, as well as the sense of person- 
al power and freedom on the other, are primitive facts 
of consciousness. That we live and move and have our 
being in God, and that we have a real determinate self- 

1 See " Creator and the Creation," by Dr. Young, pp. 57, 58. 



356 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

hood, a finite personality, a responsible spirit-life, are both 
affirmed in Scripture. That a holy God made the world, 
and still actually upholds it ; and that sin, as lawless- 
ness (uvojULia), as a real antagonism to the will and nature 
of God, exists in his world, can not be denied by Chris- 
tian men. These are equally truths. To our conception, 
they may appear antithetical, if not contradictory. But 
truth is often of a dual character; like the magnet, it may 
have opposite poles. And many of the differences which 
agitate the world are often to be traced to the exclusive- 
ness with which different parties affirm one half of the du- 
ality in forgetf illness of the other half. We must accept 
both aspects of the truth, even though we can not at pres- 
ent effect their real conciliation in thought, and wait for 
further light. 

A profound faith in the unity of all truth will inspire 
the hope that reason may yet attain to ultimate principles 
in which shall be found the harmony of facts and subor- 
dinate principles that to-day seem irreconcilable. Un- 
derlying the above apparently antithetical truths we 
can even now dimly discern still more fundamental prin- 
ciples which prophesy a solution. If Divine Love will 
that there shall be other existences who shall resemble 
God, and be capable of fellowship with Him in knowledge 
and in love — in other words, shall be perfect so far as is 
consistent with the notion of dependent existence — these 
beings must have a real selfhood, a conscious personal- 
ity, a conditioned freedom. For impersonal being, even 
though it may by its absolute dependence reveal the eter- 
nal power, and in some degree reflect the thought of 
God, can not in any sense be the image of God, who is ab- 
solute Personality. Above all, that which can not know 
itself, can not know God, and can not love God. That 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 357 

which can not freely determine itself, can not obey God or 
resemble God. The highest form of spirit-life " is the con- 
scious return, by a free identification, of every delegated 
power into harmony with its source." Real being and 
real life in God must therefore involve, not only a con- 
sciousness of dependence and obligation, but also self-con- 
sciousness and self-determination. Resemblance to God 
and fellowship with God are possible only through these 
fundamental elements of personality. Moral union re- 
quires dynamical separation. And because God wills this 
highest unity, He creates the highest individuality, and 
gives being to a will under concessions of freedom. 

"We conceive of the Divine conservation of the world 
and man as " the simple, universal, uniform efficiency of 
God which sustains the created powers in every moment 
of their activity, and thereby keeps them bound to Him- 
self. As such it makes itself the basis of all individual ef- 
ficiencies in the life and movement of the world, without 
indeed itself, as such, giving to the efficiency of creat- 
urely powers any particular direction? The conserving 
activity of God moves in pre-arranged lines, and according 
to laws and measures determined by the infinite wisdom 
of God, and conserves, therefore, all individual existence 
only within the boundaries which are fixed by these ar- 
rangements, and through the relations of the powers of the 
world. Thus as the world-conserving activity of God leaves 
all creatures just as it finds them, and equally embraces 
irrational as well as rational beings, "the evil as well as the 
good " (Matt. v. 45), it can in nowise remove the answer- 
ableness of man for his sins, or in any way taking part in 
the same. The world-conserving efficiency of God sustains 
man every moment in being, and conditions the activity 
of his moral powers even when they are exerted in an evil 



358 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

choice, just as it sust, i is the universe according to a pre- 
determined plan and in harmony with fixed laws; but it 
does not thereby give to the activity of the moral creature 
any determinate direction whatever, either good or evil. 
The general power to will and do is received immediately 
and constantly from God, but it is a delegation of pow r er 
under concessions of freedom and conditions of accounta- 
bility. The specific determinations of that power are from 
man himself. He may give an evil direction to his de- 
rived and dependent activities, and thus commit sin. The 
responsibility for that evil determination rests upon himself 
alone, even though he is every moment pervaded and sus- 
tained by the conserving efficiency of God. Alternative 
power is a talent loaned out by God to man. But it is a 
talent which still belongs to God, for the proper or im- 
proper use of which man is accountable. 

It has been urged by the captious critic, who would fain 
cast upon God all responsibility for the presence of evil in 
the world, that " if God does not actually determine the 
evil, He delegates to man the power to actualize evil ; let 
Him only refuse his conserving efficiency to the will of 
man, and thus prevent the evil !" The reckless objector 
knoweth not what he saith. In order to render evil im- 
possible, it is demanded that God shall rob man of his per- 
sonality, and degrade him to the level of impersonal nat- 
ure ; for the possibility of evil is inseparable from the no- 
tion of free, self-determined existence. " The momentary 
withdrawment of the conserving activity of God from the 
moral creature were the immediate annihilation of its ex- 
istence." l Liberty is not only a good, but it is the neces- 
sary condition of all goodness. It is the sphere of all great 
virtues, noble deeds, and heroic acts. There can be no 

1 See Mtiller, " Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. i. pp. 248, 249. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 359 

virtue, no praiseworthiness, no godlikeness, no real felicity, 
where there is no freedom. Shall we reproach God for 
having made us free personalities ? Shall we complain 
because God lias honored us by committing to us a sacred 
trust, and placed our happiness and well-being largely 
under our own control? Who would surrender his con- 
scious power and freedom, and sacrifice the infinite possi- 
bilities of good which lie before him, to escape the possi- 
bility of failure and suffering and defeat ? Will any ra- 
tional man exchange his position for that of the ant or the 
beaver ? " What," exclaims Rousseau, " to render man in- 
capable of evil, would we have him lowered to mere brute 
instinct ? No ! God of my soul, I will not reproach Thee 
for having made me in thine image, so that I might be 
good and free and happy like Thyself." 

The ceaseless dependence of man on the conserving ef- 
ficiency of God imposes upon him the obligation to deter- 
mine himself, and to regulate his action in conformity 
with the will of God. Here, then, we have found a still 
deeper ground for moral government. 

3. The relation of God to man is a relation of pater- 
nity ; the relation of man to God is a relation of child- 
shi/p. " We are his offspring ;" and as the offspring of 
God we must have a kindred nature, and, in some sense, 
" resemble God." 

God is "the Father of the human spirit" by no mere 
figure of speech, but by a Divine reality ; and man, in vir- 
tue of that rational and spiritual nature inbreathed and, 
as it were, begotten within him by the " Eternal Word of 
God," is "the likeness and image of God." It is one of 
the changeless laws of all derived and dependent existence 
that the offspring shall resemble the parent. And just as 
every seed must produce its own kind, just as every off- 



360 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

spring must be of the same species as its parent, so must 
man bear the image of God. 1 This image of God can 
have no reference to the body of man, nor to any qualities 
or attributes which belong to matter. Spirit is the only 
thing which does bear or is capable of bearing any resem- 
blance to God. The all-pervading personality of God is 
mirrored in the finite personality of man. The four grand 
elements of personality are intelligence, will, affection, and 
conscience, and these in man reflect the character of God. 
Elevated to absolute perfection, they become the august at- 
tributes of Omniscience, Omnipotence, All-lovingness, and 
All-holiness. " One God," says Cousin, " is doubtless the 
author of the world, and as his workmanship it must re- 
flect, in some measure, his perfections. But He is especial- 
ly the Father of humanity. His intelligence and his per- 
sonality are therefore of the same hind with our intelli- 
gence and our personality, to which we add infinity by a 
necessary law of thought." So that our knowledge, our 
freedom, our charity, our justice, give us the idea of Divine 
wisdom, Divine freedom, Divine justice, and Divine char- 
ity. 2 These conclusions of philosophy are in striking har- 
mony with the positive statements of Scripture. Here we 
are taught that the image of God in man consists m pow- 
er, knowledge, righteousness, and henevolence (ovio-rig) 3 — 
ogioq, from *vw = kind, merciful, benevolent. 

Inasmuch, then, as man is the " offspring of God," he 
may know that God is, and he may, in some measure at 

1 Some theologians affirm that this "image of God" was utterly and total- 
ly lost in the fall. Such an unqualified statement does not, however, seem 
warranted by Scripture. After the fall, the sanctity of human life is still 
grounded upon the fact that man is " made in the image of God" (Gen. ix. 
6), and Paul affirms of man, as man, that he is ' ' the image and glory of God " 
(1 Cor. xi. 7). 

2 " History of Philosophy, " vol. i. p. 115. 

3 See Psa. viii. 6 ; 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; Col. iii. 10 ; Eph. iv. 24. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. %Q\ 

least, know what God is, and what are the duties which he 
owes to God. Selfhood or personality in man is the pri- 
mordial germ of the idea of God. The self-consciousness, 
the intelligence, the free activity, the potential righteous- 
ness and charity of man must have their origin in a cause 
which is itself a full and adequate explanation. We ac- 
cept the ancient philosophic maxim "exnihilo nihil "'and 
apply it rigorously to the case in hand. " That which is 
can not have arisen out of that which is not." " Out of 
nothing nothing can arise." Consciousness can not arise 
out of unconsciousness, Reason can not arise out of un- 
reason. Self-activity can not arise out of absolute passivity 
and eternal rest. Justice, righteousness, charity, can not 
be generated from brute matter, or born in the abyss of 
nothingness. The Creator of man, of the reason that is in 
man, of the moral liberty of man, of the ideas of justice 
and benevolence which dwell in the conscience of man, 
must Himself be intelligent, free, just, and good. Such is 
the logic of Scripture and of common-sense. " He that 
planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the 
eye, shall He not see ? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall 
not He correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall 
not He know ?" He that made man a sentient, percipient, 
self-conscious personality, shall not He be percipient and 
self-conscious ? He that hath given man reason, is He not 
the Eternal Reason ? He that hath planted in the hearts 
of men the principles of justice, must not He be a right- 
eous Being ? He that inspires man with compassion, must 
not his nature be Love? "If the First Cause be desti- 
tute of these qualities, then for us, at least, He is as though 
He were not." He is a thousand times inferior to us — in- 
ferior even in his infinity and his eternity to one hour of 
our finite existence, if during that fugitive hour we can 



362 THE TH El STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

know and think and love. A finite moral personality, 
even though it be the most perfect form of dependent ex- 
istence, points, with an infallible logic, to a being beyond 
and above itself, and suggests an Infinite Personality who is 
absolute perfection — that is, a Being of perfect knowledge, 
perfect freedom, perfect righteousness, and perfect love. 

This community of nature between man and God is not 
only the ground and condition of our knowing God, but it 
is also the ]iving, everlasting bond which holds man to 
God, even in his sins. It involves much more than obli- 
gation — obligation to an omnipotent Master, and submis- 
sion to an omnipresent Lord. Such sense of obligation 
may be developed within the sphere of instinctive and un- 
reasoning life. But the kinship of souls to God brings 
man within the sphere of moral life, with its eternal and 
immutable laws. It endows man with the power and im- 
poses upon him the duty to reverence, adore, and love the 
heavenly Father. Wonderful and awful, this idea of the 
paternity of God and the childship of human souls ! This 
paternity of God is suggestive at once of the highest form 
of authority and the most sacred form of duty that can be 
conceived by the human mind. " The power of a sover- 
eign, however extensive it may be, is, after all, only con- 
ventional; it admits of being circumscribed or suspended. 
. . . All earthly forms of authority, which belong to the 
political, civil, or social relation of men, are accidental and 
official, created by men for their own purposes, and may 
be modified or abolished by the power that created them. 
But the authority of a father over his child is founded in 
nature and established by God. This is not a voluntary 
arrangement among men themselves, which they are at 
liberty to continue or to terminate as they please ; but, on 
the contrary, it is a Divine constitution. Such authority as 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 363 

a father possesses over his child — so natural, so real, so Di- 
vine — no human being besides can possess over another. 
This, accordingly, is the selected type of the supreme 
rights of God, and of the essential sovereignty which be- 
longs to the Father of minds. No other explains, as this 
does, the foundation and nature of Divine authority. 
There are, indeed, other terms which indicate the mere 
fact of sovereignty in God, and do so more pointedly and 
directly than this. For example : He is compared to a 
king — a name which belongs to the highest secular office 
and the highest secular authority on earth. ' The Lord is 
king forever.' His creatures are his subjects ; He gives 
them wise and righteous laws, and they must answer to 
Him for obedience and disobedience. The comparison is 
obviously just up to a certain limit ; but it is obvious that 
in many essential respects it entirely fails. The king and % 
his people are connected together only by one bond — that 
of authority and corresponding subjection." The relation 
is purely a contingent relation, and may be maintained by 
arbitrary power. But the relation between God and his 
rational creatures is a natural and a necessary relation. 
All that is denoted by the word king — authority, power, 
law — is really contained in the word father / but there 
is much more conveyed in the word father than can be 
possibly expressed by the word king. God is a king, 
but He is a Father-king; his subjects are his own chil- 
dren, and his government of them — in its origin, its spir- 
it, its laws, and even its penalties — is strictly paternal. 
God's kingship is & figure, his fatherhood is the profound- 
est reality. 1 

This correlation between the spirit of man and the 
spirit of God is the living indissoluble bond which has 

1 See Dr. Youngs "Christ of History," pp. 136-138. 



364: THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ever held, and shall forever hold the hearts of men to the 
living God. Humanity has not been enchained to the 
throne of God by servile fear, and held in subjection to 
his government by the dread of future punishment. Fear 
never made men virtuous, never can insure virtue. Man 
has been held to God by spiritual affinities and a con- 
scious kinship. Men have always felt that the Ruler of 
the world is merciful and just, and that his claim upon 
their allegiance and loyal obedience is reasonable and 
right. Therefore they have in all ages hoped in his 
mercy, and confided in the righteousness of his admin- 
istration. This has been the consolation of the wise and 
good in seasons of danger and adversity. To this Being 
innocence and weakness under oppression and wrong 
have made their proud appeal, like that of Prometheus 
to the elements, to the witnessing world, to coming ages, 
to the just ear of Heaven. When, therefore, Paul at 
Athens announced that " God is not far from any one 
of us, for in Him we live and move and are," he touched 
a chord which vibrated in every heart. For in every 
age men have had a presentiment of some nearer re- 
lation to God than the rest of creation — a relation not 
of dependence only, but of kinship and sonship. In mo- 
ments of deep feeling the poets, who are the best inter- 
preters of nature, have given oracular utterance to the 
native feeling of the human heart : 

"We are all thine offspring, 
The image and the echo of thy eternal voice." — Cleanthes. 

"All need his aid, his power sustains us all — 
For we his offspring are. " — Aratus. 

Finally, as the spiritual nature of man is derived from 
and correlated to God, he may become inwardly conscious 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 365 

of the Divine favor, or may be sensible of the Divine dis- 
pleasure. These are the sanctions of the moral law — the 
reward and the penalty awarded to men. The smile of 
God is heaven, the frown of God is hell. Here we have 
found the deepest ground of a Divine government — the 
paternity of God. 



366 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER XL 

MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
II. ITS NATURE, CONDITIONS, METHOD, AND END. 

"The times of this ignorance God overlooked, but now commandeth all 
men every where to repent ; because He hath appointed a day in the which 
He will judge the world in righteousness." — St. Paul. 

The relations existing between God and man, especially 
the correlations of paternity and filiation, constitute the 
ultimate foundations of Moral Government. This is the 
conclusion of the preceding discussion. If God is inti- 
mately near to man — if He is immanent in man, and man 
is immanent in God — if God is " the Father of the hu- 
man spirit," and man " the offspring of God," then man 
must bear some resemblance to God — he must have a spir- 
itual and immortal nature, must be a free personality, 
must be capable of knowing and loving God, and there- 
fore must be under solemn responsibility to God, and 
w r ithin the sphere of the eternal and immutable laws of 
moral life ; in a word, he must be the subject of moral 
government. 

We proceed now to consider, more especially, the nat- 
ure, the conditions, the methods, and the ends of moral 
government. 

I. The nature of moral government. — Government, in 
general, is control — control with a view to the maintenance 
of order. This may be effected by direct coaction or 
forceful compulsion ; or by the reaction of natural conse- 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 357 

quenees ; or by the pervasive influence of moral motives. 
The first is constraint, the second is restraint, the third is 
authoritative direction. We must, therefore, distinguish 
between physical, natural, and moral government. 

The physical government of God is the absolute control 
which He exercises over the material creation. He is the 
Fountain-head of all the forces, and the Author of all the 
laws according to which passive, unconscious matter is re- 
sistlessly impelled ; and because his power and wisdom 
are infinite, and his purposes are immutable, therefore 
material nature is uniform, and there is an all-pervading 
order in the physical world. 

The natural government of God is that constitution of 
nature, and of man in so far as he is a part of nature, by 
which the sensations of pleasure and pain result directly 
and necessarily from the actions of man ; and inasmuch 
as he is able by an induction from experience to foresee 
these consequences, and to determine his own conduct in 
view of them, they are not improperly called rewards and 
punishments. Thus it is found by experience that disease 
and suffering result from acts of intemperance and licen- 
tiousness, and men are restrained from the commission of 
these acts by the fear of their foreseen results. This is 
control by the reaction of natural consequences in that in- 
termediate sphere which we may designate the physico- 
moral order of the world. 

The moral government of God is that kind of control 
which a wise and virtuous parent exercises over his fam- 
ily, or a just and equitable magistrate over his subjects. 1 
It is a government by laws or rules addressed to the rea- 
son, by moral motives which appeal to the conscience, and 
by moral sanctions which appeal to the emotions. It is a 
1 Butler's "Analogy," pt. i. ch. iii. 



368 THE T HEIST I C CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

constitution in which God has declared his will to mail, 
and taught him, prior to the experience of retributive con- 
sequences, what is right and what is wrong; a constitution 
under which man is endowed with the capacity of perceiv- 
ing the inherent righteousness of the Divine law, of feel- 
ing the imperative claims of duty, and of apprehending a 
future retribution, and also a real causative power of self- 
determination and choice. Finally, it is an economy in 
which ample scope is afforded for the development of re- 
sponsible character. It is a probation in which there are 
tests and temptations, in which forbearance is exercised 
and consequences are delayed, in which remedial agencies 
are plied and opportunities are afforded for repentance 
and reformation, and in the final consummation of which 
virtuous character shall receive its meet reward, and sin- 
ful character its merited punishment. This is the ideal 
order of moral life. 

This twofold distinction between the physical and the 
spiritual, and between the natural and the moral, runs 
through the entire domain of existence and action, of be- 
ing and becoming. 

The terms physical and spiritual are employed as col- 
lective terms to connote the essential, changeless, and per- 
manent attributes of certain entities or realities which are 
regarded as ultimate, viz., matter and spirit. The attri- 
butes of matter are extension, divisibility, absolute incom- 
pressibility, and inertia ; the attributes of spirit are sensi- 
tivity, reason, power, spontaneity, and memory. The term 
physical is further employed to denote certain "affec- 
tions of matter" — that is, mechanical effects which are the 
result of the action of force upon matter. It is true we 
often speak of " physical forces," as though force were an 
essential attribute of matter. But this is one of the many 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 369 

ambiguities of language. All that we mean by physical 
force is a force which acts upon matter, and produces in 
the motions and collocations of matter its appropriate ef- 
fects. 1 Spirit-force is the only force in the universe ; all 
that our physical science deals with is " forms of energy 
which have their origin in force." " Mind," says Dr. 
Carpenter, "is the one and only source of power." 2 

The terms natural and moral are employed to denote 
opposite modes of action and classes of effects. In the 
one case the mode of action is fixed and uniform, and the 
effect is necessary ; in the other case the mode of action is 
free and volitional, and the effect is contingent and vari- 
able. The first is the order of nature where force reigns, 
the second is the order of moral life where freedom pre- 
vails. " Whatever is comprised in the chain and mechan- 
ism of cause and effect, of course necessitated, and having 
its. necessity in some other thing antecedent or concurrent, 
this is said to be natural^ and the aggregate and system 
of all such things is nature." 3 While, on the contrary, 
that which lies within the agent's power, and to which he 
determines himself by an act of free choice ; and especial- 
ly that which the agent knows he ought to do, and in 
choosing which he is conscious of power to put forth, in 
the same unchanged circumstances, a different volition in- 
stead, is called moral. 

Thus does morality commence with " the sacred distinc- 
tion" between tldng and person. "On this distinction 
all legislation, human and Divine, proceeds." That which 
fundamentally distinguishes a person from a mere thing 
of nature is free causality — that is, " the power or immu- 

1 " Reign of Law," by the Duke of Argyll, p. 121. 

2 Nature, vol. vi. p. 312. 

3 Coleridge's Works, vol. i. p. 152. 

Aa 



370 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

nity to put forth in the same circumstances either of sev- 
eral volitions." A thing is unconscious, involuntary, and 
powerless, and consequently limited to one sole possible 
e ventilation. A thing has no responsibility for its move- 
ments, which it has not willed, and of the nature and con- 
sequences of which it is ignorant. A person alone is re- 
sponsible, because he is intelligent and free ; that is, lie 
can foresee the consequences of his action, and freely de- 
termines himself to its performance. A thing has no dig- 
nity ; dignity attaches only to personality. Personality is 
inalienable, sacred, and inviolable ; it can not be abro- 
gated, surrendered, or transferred, and it demands to be 
respected. In a word, it has both duties and rights, while 
things have neither. 1 

Thus do we find that all dignity, all sacredness, all- re- 
sponsibility, all morality belong to and are predicable only 
of the personal being, because intelligence and freedom are 
the essential moments of personality. 

Furthermore, the sphere of the moral is to be deter- 
mined by another important limitation. Not all the actions 
of men are personal and responsible acts. Sensation is not 
a voluntary operation. When the external object is brought 
into proper relation with the animated organism, percep- 
tion necessarily occurs. The intuitive apperceptions of the 
reason are impersonal ; when a change transpires, the rea- 
son necessarily affirms the existence of a cause. Reflex 
nervous action is involuntary. Many muscular movements 
are spontaneous, but not volitional. A responsible action 
is an intentional action — that is, an act performed to re- 
alize an end which lies within the agent's contemplation. 
Spontaneity or self-determination only thereby becomes 
will. A moral act is consequently a premeditated, in- 

1 Cousin, " True, Beautiful, and Good," pp. 287-289. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 371 

tentional, voluntary act, and the merit or demerit of an 
a^ent is as his actual intention. 

The last and most important limitation of the moral 
sphere is to those voluntary actions which have relation 
to personality, human and Divine. " The peculiar dis- 
tinction of moral actions, moral character, moral princi- 
ples, moral habits, as contrasted with the intellectual and 
other parts of man's nature, lies in this, that they always 
imply a relation between two persons." 1 Morality is the 
relation of person to person. 

We sum up what has been said in the preceding para- 
graphs in these words : The moral government of God is 
a legislation which has respect to personality, especially 
the relations of person to person ; and it is an adminis- 
tration under which the subjects have power to resist and 
violate its requirements, but which is provided with ample 
means to vindicate its authority, and maintain the moral 
order of the universe. 

II. The subjective conditions of moral government. — It 
will be apparent from what has been already said that 
the following conditions are essential to moral govern- 
ment : 

(1.) The subject of moral government must be intelligent. 
He must be able to understand the Divine requirements, 
to perceive their inherent rightness, and to feel the sense 
of obligation to comply therewith. He must also be sus- 
ceptible of certain pleasurable or painful emotions which 
follow as the direct consequences of his actions, and se- 
cure an adequate retribution. In a word, he must have a 
moral consciousness, or, briefly, a conscience. 

(2.) The subject of moral government must be a free 
power. He must be the efficient cause of his own action, 

1 Sewell's "Christian Morals," p. 339. 



372 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

and he must be conscious of this power of self-determina- 
tion — that is, he must be conscious of power to put forth, 
in the same unchanged circumstances, either of several vo- 
litions. In short, he must have a free will. 

These, then, are the essential conditions of moral agency 
— the possession of a conscience, and the power to obey or 
disobey the requirements of moral law. Both these con- 
ditions of accountability exist in man. By virtue of his 
constitution as a spiritual being made in the image of God, 
he is capable of perceiving what is inherently right, just, 
and good. His reason intuitively apprehends the good, 
and affirms the imperative obligation to choose the good. 
His judgment pronounces upon the relation of human con- 
duct to the law of right, affirming man has or has not done 
right. And his emotive nature yields him complacence 
and joy as the reward of well-doing, or inflicts pain and 
remorse as the punishment of wrong-doing. In the words 
of Chalmers, "he is endowed with a conscience which per- 
forms within his bosom all the offices of a lawgiver and a 
judge." 

The possession of this faculty necessarily supposes the 
existence of power in the agent to comply or not to com- 
ply with its behests. A moral law is designed only for 
the government of a free being, and nothing is moral or 
immoral which is not voluntary. If there is no self-deter- 
mination, there is no proper personality to which the law 
of reason can attach. Remorse, on the one hand, satisfac- 
tion on the other, are emotions which are inconceivable 
and impossible in a being who is not consciously free. 

The nature and authority of conscience is a question 
which is earnestly discussed. Among philosophers and 
theologians there are diverse and conflicting opinions. It 
has been variously characterized as a loitness of our past 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 373 

actions; as a judgment passed upon our actions; or as a 
feeling arising in view of our actions. By one, conscience 
is regarded as an appetite — a craving for the right, but 
not a faculty intuitively perceiving the right. Another 
defines it "as a capacity and a tendency to inquire into 
duty, but not as supplying a law of duty." l While a 
third regards it as a state of the sensibility — " a simple 
feeling, emotion, or vivid sentiment which arises immedi- 
ately in the mind in presence of certain actions, and to 
which we give the name of moral approbation." 2 

These definitions of conscience may all be regarded as 
containing some truth. They are all defective, however, 
in this one respect — they fail to recognize an internal law 
lohich constitutes a subjective standard of right, mid an 
intuitive perception of moral distinctions and qualities in 
human action. 

As an essay toward a clearer apprehension of the nature 
of conscience, we present the following propositions : 

1. Conscience is not a distinct faculty of the mind. 
Conscience (conscienti 'a = joint or double knowledge) is 
the knowledge of self in relation to a known law of right 
and wrong. Conscience and consciousness may therefore 
be regarded as, in some respects, identical. The terms in 
their etymology and their general import are synonymous. 
There is, however, a technical distinction to be made. 
Consciousness expresses self-knowledge in general. Con- 
science expresses self-knowledge relative to responsibility. 
Consciousness is the recognition by the thinking subject of 
its own states and affections. Conscience is the knowledge 
of an act or an affection as having some moral quality — 
as being right or wrong. 

2. Conscience is, like consciousness, a complex phenom- 

1 R. W. Hamilton. 2 Dr. Thomas Brown. 



374 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

enon, the result of the simultaneous action of the primary 
powers of the mind. The simplest fact of consciousness 
is a synthesis of sensation and reason in a primitive psy- 
chological judgment. Sensation alone is not knowledge, 
and it becomes consciousness only as it is illuminated and 
informed by the reason. And so a mere state of the sensi- 
bility — a mere feeling of approbation or disapprobation — 
does not constitute conscience until it is informed by the 
reason. Conscience is the unity of feeling and reason in 
a judgment which has respect to voluntary action. 

3. Conscience is the common field in which is revealed 
the result of the operation of all our faculties in their 
especial relation to moral law. As consciousness is the 
common field in which the results of the operation of all 
our faculties come to light, so conscience is that depart- 
ment of the same field in which is revealed the action of 
the mind in relation to the unchangeable principles of or- 
der and right which dwell in the bosom of the Infinite. 
Conscience is pre-eminently the Godward side of our men- 
tal being, which reflects the moral character of God, and 
brings us into relationship with Him. It is that which 
carries us per saltum to the immediate recognition of a 
God, the Lawgiver and the Judge who is over man, and 
which holds him in mysterious but indissoluble bonds of 
obligation. Conscience is therefore, 

(1.) The reason intuitively apprehending universal moral 
ideas and laws. It furnishes the idea of the good. It af- 
firms that the good is universally obligatory. It asserts 
that the good has desert, worthiness, and dignity. And it 
demands for the good an appropriate recognition and a 
just reward. 

(2.) The understanding apprehending the relations in 
which we stand to God, to our fellow-beings, and to self 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 375 

as a moral personality endowed with reason and free- 
dom. 

(3.) The judgment comparing the acts of a voluntary 
agent existing in certain relations with the immutable 
ideas and laws of the reason, and affirming this is right 
and worth}- of praise and reward, or that is wrong and de- 
serving of blame and punishment. 

(4) A particular state of the sensibility — the painful or 
pleasurable emotions which spontaneously arise in presence 
of riff lit or wrong in our own actions or in the actions of 
our fellow-men. 

Thus conscience is, as it were, the focal point at which 
are united and blended the varied acts and states of the 
soul in its immediate relation to the moral law. It is the 
synthesis of moral ideas, cognitions, and feelings in a mor- 
al judgment. 

The co-operation of these powers and susceptibilities of 
the soul in their relation to the good has a parallel and an 
illustration in their operation in relation to the beauti- 

/id. 

The ideas of order, proportion, harmony, fitness, and uni- 
ty in variety are unquestionably fundamental and nec- 
essary ideas of the reason. In the Divine reason these 
ideas have always existed as the laws in accordance with 
which He fashioned the material universe. And inasmuch 
as the human reason is configured to the Divine, these 
ideas must also exist in the human mind. Like statuary in 
the inner palaces of the soul, they are the models by which 
we recognize and the standards according to which w T e 
judge the forms of beauty in the external world. The 
correspondence between these external forms and the in- 
ner ideals of the reason is recognized by the judgment. 
And the delight we experience in presence of the beauti- 



376 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

ful in nature and art is a particular direction of the sensi- 
bility. 

This is not, however, the chronological order in which 
the idea of the beautiful is developed in the mind. The 
sense of beauty first reveals itself in the spontaneous con- 
sciousness in presence of the order and harmony and 
fitness which pervade the nniverse. We experience de- 
light without being able to specialize the precise causes of 
our pleasure. But the reflective consciousness, which is 
pre-eminently analytic, brings out into clear light the fun- 
damental ideas of order, harmony, fitness, and unity, which 
had a prior existence in the reason, and have now recog- 
nized themselves as mirrored in the universe. The re- 
peated observation of the forms of beauty around us, and 
the comparison of these with the standard ideas of the 
reason, will result in the beau-ideal of a pure and correct 
taste — true alvXriTucov. 

So in relation to the idea of the good. It does not 
stand forth to the eye of consciousness, in the first in- 
stance, as an abstract conception. The moral sense — the 
affection of the sensibility in presence of voluntary and 
responsible action — is first revealed in the spontaneous 
consciousness. When we behold an act of justice, of kind- 
ness, of beneficence, we experience the fullest satisfaction. 
We admire and esteem the actor. We feel that his con- 
duct is praiseworthy, and that he is deserving of honor 
and reward. These sentiments spring up spontaneously 
and involuntarily in our bosoms long before we have de- 
fined their reason and law. The reflective consciousness 
subsequently elicits the rational ideas which underlie these 
emotions — the ideas of the useful, the just, the benefi- 
cent, the noble, and the perfect, all which are finally em- 
braced in the idea of the good. And the repeated com- 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 377 

parison of the conduct of voluntary agents existing under 
certain relations, with the fundamental ideas of the reason, 
these standards of right erected in the soul, will result in 
an ideal of moral excellence — a true ISikov. 

If this doctrine of conscience be the product of a true 
psychological method, it will enable us to account for the 
apparent want of uniformity in its suffrages in individual 
cases, and the varied phenomena presented in different 
men. 

Conscience, like consciousness, has its gradual develop- 
ment. Though natural and necessary to every human 
soul whose powers are normally developed, it is not exer- 
cised at the beginning of its existence, but only after cer- 
tain conditions of growth and stages of growth have been 
attained. This development may be arrested or it may be 
perverted. The absence of proper conditions, the lack of 
suitable discipline and culture in any one of the faculties 
whose operation enters into the concrete phenomena, will 
modify the general result. An excess of sensibility will 
give a morbid conscience ; the lack of sensibility, a slum- 
bering conscience. A defective apprehension of the rela- 
tions in which we stand to God and to our fellow-men will 
prevent our seeing our specific duties. Inattention to the 
character of our own motives, or ignorance of the real in- 
tentions of other men, may mislead the judgment in dis- 
criminating between the quality of actions. There are 
also natural differences in the soundness and accuracy of 
the judgments of individual men. We meet those who 
with a limited acquaintance with particular facts and ab- 
stract notions are nevertheless endowed with sound prac- 
tical judgment ; while others, with a larger knowledge of 
facts and general principles, are strangely defective in 
judgment. Finally, unless men accustom themselves to 



378 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

reflection, to analysis, the ideas of the just, the right, the 
good, do not come clearly into the light of consciousness. 
Hence the different manifestations of conscience in indi- 
vidual men. 

We claim, however, that the moral ideas of the reason 
are in all men identical; that they exist and operate, even 
though unconsciously, in all minds, determining their mor- 
al judgments; and that when the same relations of per- 
sonality are clearly before the mind the moral judgments 
of men are uniform. 

In spite of all the topical moralities to which factitious 
circumstances may have given birth, there is unquestion- 
ably a universal and immutable morality. In every na- 
tion under heaven, veracity, justice, and beneficence are 
separated by a clear, unmistakable line from falsehood, 
injustice, and cruelty; nor can all the casuistry and soph- 
istry in the universe transpose or confound them. Cus- 
tom, prescription, conventions of human opinion, factitious 
circumstances, can never blur over and obliterate these 
lines which separate right and wrong. Beneath all these 
apparent differences, the conscience will make her voice 
heard in the depth of the soul, in the common sentiments 
of mankind, and in the statutes of universal jurisprudence. 
The great ideas of justice and right were prominent and 
well defined among the nations of antiquity. "Nemesis 
and Themis were not only their abstractions and deities — 
they were embodied in their systems of jurisprudence. 
Law secured property and sanctified life. Law guarded 
every relation and ordered every act. Law was the theme 
of their philosophy and the burden of their song. We are 
not unacquainted with the jealousies and disputes of their 
schools of philosophy. They placed the good of man and 
the reason of morality in the most incongruous things, but 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 379 

they never differed concerning the conduct which was 
right. Epicurus and Zeno knew no divergence here." 1 
Indeed, they asserted the immutability of moral law for 
all times and places — 

"The unwritten laws of God that know not change; 
They are not of to-day nor yesterday, 
But live for ever." 2 

"There is," says Cicero, " one true and original law, con- 
formable to nature and reason, diffused over all, invariable, 
eternal, which calls to the fulfillment of duty and to absti- 
nence from injustice, and which calls with that irresistible 
voice which is felt in all its authority wherever it is heard. 
This law can not be curtailed or abolished, nor affected in 
its sanctions by any law of man. A whole senate, a whole 
people, can not dispense with its paramount obligation. 
It requires no commentator to render it distinctly intelli- 
gible, nor is it different at Rome, at Athens, now and in 
ages before and after, but in all ages and all nations it is 
and has been and will be one and everlasting — one as 
that God, its author and promulgator, who is the common 
Sovereign of all mankind, is Himself one. Man is truly 
man as he yields himself to this Divine influence. He can 
not resist it but by flying, as it were, from his own bosom, 
and laying aside the general feelings of humanity, by 
which very act he must already have inflicted on himself 
the severest of punishments, even though lie were to avoid 
what is usually accounted punishment." 3 

Among the most savage tribes, as among the most re- 
fined and polished nations, are also to be found the same 
common principles of morality. Theft, murder, adultery 
are offenses condemned and punished by every nation un- 

1 R. W. Hamilton. 2 Sophocles, " Antigone," v. 450-4G0. 

3 Quoted by Dr. Brown from "Lucani Pharsalia," bk. ix. 



3S0 THE THETSTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

der heaven. The high qualities of virtue are the things 
which win esteem and command respect in every country, 
however rude. Were proof demanded, we might bring it 
at once from the darkest corners of the earth. The sav- 
age Fijian regards theft, adultery, abduction, incendiarism, 
and treason as serious crimes. 1 And Dr. Livingstone tells 
us that, " On questioning intelligent men among the Back- 
wains as to their former knowledge of good and evil, of 
God, and of a future state, they have scouted the idea of 
any of them ever having been without a tolerably clear 
conception on all these subjects. Respecting their sense 
of right and wrong, they profess that nothing we indicate 
as sin ever appeared to them as otherwise, except the 
statement that it was wrong to have more wives than 
one." 2 

We conclude that the universal consciousness of our 
race, as revealed in human history, languages, legislations, 
and sentiments, bears testimony to the fact that the ideas 
of right, duty, accountability, and moral desert are native 
to the human mind ; and consequently the existence of the 
first condition of moral government — namely, the possession 
by its subject of a conscience — is an unquestionable fact. 

The second condition of moral government is the exist- 
ence, in the subject, of free self determining power : the 
agent must be the real cause and the sole cause of his own 
actions; he must have freedom both to and/Ww?. the act. 

Under a reign of necessity there can be no moral gov- 
ernment and no just retribution. It is, at best, a mere 
physical or natural government; for moral government 
must be of beings who are free and self-determined, and 
not of mere machines. To blame a necessitated thing is 

1 "Fiji and the Fijians," by Williams and Calvert, p. 22. 

2 " Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa," p. 153. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 381 

irrational, to punish it is a cruelty and an injustice. The 
necessitarian himself is unable to conceal his conscious 
embarrassment in presence of these difficulties, and to save 
his theory he becomes reckless in assertions. He affirms 
that " the whole system of morality — its duties and respon- 
sibilities ; the whole scheme of moral government, with its 
rewards and punishments — remains, on his theory, as entire 
and stable as ever." 1 This affirmation runs athwart all 
the dictates of common-sense, and collides with the uni- 
versal conviction of humanity. He is the only consistent 
necessitarian who rejects the Christian doctrine of sin, de- 
nies all accountability and retribution, and reduces the 
government of God to mere physical impulsion and the 
management of a universal mechanism. The necessitarian 
dogma can not be made to quadrate with our primitive 
convictions ; it is out of harmony with all our instinctive 
beliefs. The innate idea of right, the native sense of duty 
and accountability, the consciousness of sin, our faith in 
the justice of God, our religious hopes and fears, all impel 
us onward to find a rational and valid basis for human 
responsibility and moral government in the freedom of 
the will. 

That man does possess an alternative power of self-de- 
termination and choice is evident : 

1. From the direct testimony of consciousness. We 
know that any doing of ours might have been reserved — 
we feel, by that same direct consciousness which certifies 
our existence and our reason, that we have the fullest 
power of choice. Xo subtlety, no abstraction of argu- 
ment, can convince us that we are otherwise than free. 
" Men are not conscious of compulsion of any kind, not 
conscious of certain mental states, called choices, which 

1 Chalmers's "Institutes of Theology, " vol. ii. p. 294. 



382 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

are either wholly or partially independent of their free 
agency; but they are perfectly and distinctly conscious of 
entire liberty, and of complete inward power to choose." 1 

That we have a direct consciousness of freedom is the 
doctrine of most of the writers on moral science. Cousin 
is emphatic in the assertion of this doctrine : " I am con- 
scious of this sovereign power of the will. I feel in my- 
self, before its determination, the force that can determine 
itself in such a manner or in such another. At the same 
time that I will this or that I am equally conscious of the 
power to will the opposite ; I am conscious of being mas- 
ter of my resolution, of the ability to arrest it, continue it, 
repress it." 2 The distinguished Professor of Moral Phi- 
losophy in the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Calderwood, 
teaches the same doctrine : " It is in our consciousness of 
self-control for the determination of activity that we ob- 
tain our only knowledge of causation. Every one knows 
himself as the cause of his own actions. In the external 
world we continue ignorant of causes, and are able only 
to trace uniform sequence, as Hume and Comte have in- 
sisted. But in consciousness we distinguish between se- 
quence and causality. We are conscious of our own 
causal energy by knowing the origin of our activity in 
self-determination." 3 

The direct consciousness of freedom is denied by Sir 

1 "The Creator and the Creation," by John Young, LL.D., pp. 101-2. 
See also "Man Primeval," by Dr. Harris, p. 109; Hamilton's "Revealed 
Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments," p. 67. 

2 " True, Beautiful, and Good," p. 286. 

3 " Hand-book of Moral Philosophy, " p. 1 84. See also Cairns's " Treatise . 
on Moral Freedom," p. 222 ; and Hazard on " Causation and Freedom in 
Willing," p. 7; Dr. Alexander, "Outlines of Moral Science," p. 125; Sir 
John Herschel's "Familiar Lectures on Science," p. 461; Carpenter's "Hu- 
man Physiology," p. 543 ; Wallace, " On Natural Selection," p. 367 ; Beale's 
"Protoplasm," p. 121. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 3 S3 

William Hamilton. This denial is a necessary consequence 
of his doctrine of relativity. If we are not conscious of self 
as a reality, but only of certain modes or affections, then, 
of course, we can not be conscious of self as a free power. 
But as Mansel has forcibly replied : " Does it not rather 
appear a flat contradiction to maintain that I am not im- 
mediately conscious of myself, but only of my sensations 
or volitions ? Who, then, is the / that is conscious ; and 
how can I he conscious of such states as mine? In this 
case it would surely be more accurate to say, not that I 
am conscious of my sensations, but that the sensation is 
conscious of itself ; but, thus worded, the glaring absurdity 
of the theory would carry with it its own refutation. . . . 
Self -personality is revealed to us with all the clearness of 
an original intuition.' 31 With an inconsistency which 
shows the fallacy of Sir William Hamilton's whole theory 
of relativity, he admits that, "As clearly as I am conscious 
of existing, so clearly am I conscious at every moment of 
my existence that the conscious Ego is not itself a mere 
modification, nor a series of modifications of any other 
subject, but that it is itself something different from all its 
own modifications, and a self sub sistent entity." 2 

If, then, we admit, as we must admit, the existence of an 
immediate consciousness, not merely of the phenomena of 
mind, but of the personal self as actively and passively 
related to them, we must also admit the direct testimony 
of conscience to the fact of liberty. " I am conscious not 
merely of the phenomenon of volition, but of myself as 
producing it, and as producing it by choice, with a power 
to choose the opposite alternative" 

1 " Prolegomena Logica," p. 122. 

2 " Lectures on Metaphysics," vol. i. p. 373 ; also Porter's " Human Intel- 
lect," p. 95. 



384 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

The necessitarians are all compelled to concede that the 
universal conviction of our race is, and always has been, 
that man is free. They have, however, asserted that this 
dictate of common-sense is not to be accepted ks philo- 
sophically true. Lord Karnes admits the natural convic- 
tion of freedom from necessity, though he declares it to be 
an illusion : 

"Man fondly dreams that he is free to act; 
Naught is he but the powerless, worthless plaything 
Of the blind force that in his will itself 
Works out for him a dread necessity." 

And Hommel, certainly one of the ablest and most de- 
cided of fatalists, says, " I must believe that I have a feel- 
ing of liberty, at the very moment I am writing against 
liberty, upon grounds which I regard as incontestable. 
Zeno was a fatalist only in theory ; he did not act in con- 
formity with his convictions." 1 

The possession of alternative power is a fact of con- 
sciousness as clear and indubitable as the fact of personal 
existence. It is admitted by the necessitarians that all men 
have "a natural conviction of freedom;" they believe them- 
selves to be free beings, and they act upon this belief in 
all the relations of life. If this fact of consciousness is an 
illusion, then our existence is also an illusion, for that same 
intuition which certifies to me that I exist certifies also 
that I am free. If the testimony of consciousness is in- 
validated, there is no criterion for truth. If one of its de- 
liverances is found to be false, how can we vindicate the 
veracity of any ? " Our faculties are bestowed upon us as 
the instruments of deception ; the root of our nature is a 
Ue, and universal skepticism is the only goal." 

2. The idea of moral obligation necessarily presupposes 

1 Quoted by Hamilton in "Notes on Reid/' p. 610. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 355 

the freedom of the will. This is a principle so obvious 
that it needs no elucidation. If man have duties, he must 
possess the power of fulfilling them. lie ought to be free 
if he ought to obey law, or human nature is in contradic- 
tion with itself. The direct certainty of obligation implies 
the corresponding certainty of freedom. Hence Kant's 
well-known canon, " I ought, therefore I can." Though 
denying the direct consciousness of freedom, Kant main- 
tained with earnestness that the fact of liberty is guaran- 
teed by the existence of the moral law, whose categorical 
imperative thou shalt necessarily implies a corresponding 
thou, canst. To the same effect are the words of Sir Will- 
iam Hamilton : "The fact that we are free is given to us 
in the consciousness of an uncompromising law of duty. 
. . . Our consciousness of the moral law, which without a 
moral liberty in man would be a mendacious imperative, 
gives a decided preponderance to the doctrine of freedom 
over the doctrine of fate." 1 Physical causation and moral 
obligation can not co-exist side by side. In proportion as 
we extend the domain of necessity we must diminish that 
of duty. 

3. The sense of responsibility presupposes the freedom 
of the will. This sense of responsibility is native to the 
human mind. Every man feels himself to be accountable 
for his own conduct, not only at the bar of his own con- 
science, but before the moral judgment-seat of his fellow- 
men. Every where he recognizes the right of his fellow- 
men to inquire into his character, to sit in judgment upon 
his conduct, and to esteem and treat him accordingly. We 
necessarily impute blame when an unjust action is per- 
formed by another; we feel conscious of guilt and un- 
worthiness when a wrong is done by ourselves. These 

1 "Discussions," p. 587. 

Be 



386 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

are facts of universal consciousness. But these sentiments 
are irrational and absurd if man is a mere machine im- 
pelled by natural causes, and has no self-determining pow- 
er. 1 Whatever disasters may overtake us in the course of 
nature, however we may suffer by the wild tornado or the 
blighting mildew, how much soever of our property may be 
swallowed up by the ocean tempest or the devouring flame, 
we impute no blame ; and we experience here emotions es- 
sentially different from those which we experience when a 
wrong is intentionally inflicted upon us by our fellow-men. 
"Suppose yourself to have been the victim of some act of in- 
justice and villainy by which you were reduced to penury, 
and your family to want and indigence. By what philos- 
ophy can you eradicate the sense of wrong or cease to im- 
pute blame to the man whose perfidy has despoiled your 
life ? You may forgive him, and follow him with your 
prayers to the last hour of your life, but you will still pray 
for him as a guilty man whose crime has been the burden 
of your life." Now what is this radical and fundamental 
difference between the events of the material universe 
and the actions of men ? and what is the rational basis 
for the different feelings we experience and the diverse 
judgments we pass in regard to them? 

There is only one answer to this question. The ulti- 
mate ground-difference is found in the fact that one class 
of events is necessary — there is no adequate power in the 
thing to be or do otherwise ; the other class of actions is 
free — they need not have been performed, the actor had 
full power for a contrary choice. In the Vv T orld of nature 
force reigns ; in the world of moral life liberty prevails. 
The fundamental principle of difference is the freedom 
of the will. 

1 "The feeling of responsibility is unmeaning unless it presupposes the 
reality of freedom." — Murphy, "Scientific Basis of Faith, "p. 85. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 3gf 

This second condition of moral government — namely, 
the possession of free alternative power on the part of the 
subject to comply, or refuse to comply, with the require- 
ments of moral law — is thus established, first, by the direct 
testimony of consciousness, from which there can be no 
appeal, and, secondly, "by necessary inference from collat- 
eral facts of consciousness, which can not be invalidated 
by counter-proofs. 

Unhappily, the restlessness of speculative minds, the 
necessities of false theories in philosophy, or the unwar- 
rantable assumptions of dogmatic theologians, have led to 
the disregard of the affirmations of universal conscious- 
ness. Men have asked, How can freedom be possible in a 
dependent creature? How can it be consistent with our 
belief in the principle of universal causation ? How can 
it be harmonized with the fact that man always acts under 
the influence of motives? How can it be reconciled with 
the omnipotence and absolute prescience of God ? 

We shall now address ourselves to the consideration of 
the arguments against the doctrine of the freedom of the 
will which are suggested by these queries. 

1. The first is the Metaphysical or Causational Ar- 
gument. The rational intuition that "every event must 
have a cause" is a universal and necessary truth. It must 
therefore be rigorously applied to all mental as well as to 
all physical phenomena. Every volition must have a cause, 
and if caused it can not be free. This is the grand argu- 
ment upon which the necessitarian mainly relies, and it is 
urged with eloquence and force by Edwards, Chalmers, 
and McCosh. 

Xow that "every event must have a cause" is an a 
priori truth, which is as readily accorded by the free- 



3S8 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

domist as it is vehemently insisted upon by the necessita- 
rian. No philosophic writers have more ably and clearly 
enounced this law of causality than the freedomists Reid, 
Stewart, and Cousin. They rely upon it as one of the 
main pillars of the Theistic argument. And they apply it, 
in all its integrity, to mental as well as to physical phenom- 
ena. They hesitate not to say that " every volition must 
have a cause" That cause is the efficient creative power 
which resides in a free, spiritual personality. And that 
power is not, like a material or physical cause, shut up to 
one sole mode of effectuation : it is an alternative power, 
a pluri-efficient cause. Where, then, is the discrepancy, 
between the universal principle of causality and the doc- 
trine of alternative causation % Is the infinite First Cause 
confined to one solely possible mode of effectuation ? If 
so, how will you account for the endlessly varied effects 
which appear in the physical universe % God is the Eter- 
nal One ; whence the plurality and diversity of his crea- 
tive acts if He be not an equi-potent cause % And yet, of 
all the events which have transpired in the universe, wheth- 
er natural or supernatural, we affirm " every event must 
have had a cause." 1 The endless diversity of effects which 
originate in the alternative causation of God is in perfect 
harmony with this universal law of causality. 

But on a closer examination it will be found that when 
the necessitarian attempts to invalidate our consciousness 
of alternative power by the application of the causational 
argument he adroitly shifts his ground. He assumes anoth- 
er proposition, which is neither equivalent to the above ax- 
iom, nor in itself axiomatic and self-evident, nor justifiably 

1 "The miraculous interpositions recorded in the Scriptures are not incon- 
sistent with this fundamental axiom, for they are effects of the will of God 
as the cause." — McCosh, "Divine Government," p. 113. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 359 

assumed without proof. McCosh says " tlie doctrine of 
necessity is founded on the intellectual intuitions of man's 
mind, which lead us, in mental as in material phenomena, 
to anticipate the same effects to follow the same causes " ' 
— that is, every cause is inalternative or unipotent ; one 
effect, and only one can follow. 

Now that a given phenomenon must have a cause is one 
assertion ; that the same cause will again and forever pro- 
duce the same effect is another. The first is an axiom, the 
second is an induction. That "every event must have a 
cause" is a rational intuition. That "like causes will pro- 
duce always like effects " is a generalization from our lim- 
ited experience, and on a further analysis will be found 
to apply only to our cognitions of the material universe. 
It is grounded simply on what we know empirically of the 
uniformity of nature. Now we have no a priori intuitive 
conviction of the uniformity of nature. As the result of 
maturer thought, McCosh admits this in his work on the 
" Intuitions of the Mind :" " It is vain to speak of the be- 
lief m the uniformity of nature as a self-evident, a neces- 
sary, or a universal truth " (page 276). It is perfectly con- 
ceivable that the world might have been so constituted 
that there should have been no regularity in the succes- 
sion of events. The causes of all the events in nature 
might have been supernatural, and consisted in the imme- 
diate free volitions of the Deity, or subordinate angelic 
agencies. 2 They might have been all " miraculous," and 
yet the true law of causality would not have been violat- 
ed, or in any way invalidated. And so when man, in the 
exercise of his free alternative power, produces a new suc- 

1 "Divine Government," p. 541. 

2 See McOosh's " Divine Government," p. 113, and Mill's "Logic," p. 
114, vol. ii., English edition. 



390 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

cession of events in physical nature, or moves disorder and 
avofita into the moral sphere, this is no way inconsistent 
with the axiom that " every event has a cause." 

" In our very definition of freedom of will we assume in 
the volitional sphere the inapplicability of the maxim that 
i like causes ever and always produce like effects.' We 
assume that either one of several effects is legitimate from 
the same cause. And while we admit that in non-volition- 
al causation the law that ' every event must have a cause ' 
means that every event must have its own peculiar cause, 
adequate for itself alone, in volitional causation an event 
may have a cause adequate either for it or for other event ; 
and whichever event exists, the demands of the laws of 
causation are completely satisfied" 1 

Driven from this boasted stronghold, the necessitarian 
resorts to his favorite dialectic strategy. He demands the 
explanation of equipotent causation, how one cause can be 
adequate to several effects. He asks, What causes the 
will to jput forth one particular volition rather than 
another f 

Now when we have shown that, as a fact of conscious- 
ness and experience, a personal, spiritual cause is adequate 
to several results, we are entitled in reason and justice to 
protest against any attempt to push the inquiry a step far- 
ther. We have attained an ultimate fact, and we have no 
right to cast doubt upon its authority by raising perplexing 
questions as to the how or why of that which is. This is 
precisely the method by which the atheist Holyoake would 
invalidate the argument for the existence of the infinite 
First Cause. He subjects the Deity to this universal law 
of causality, and asks, What caused the Creator to create ? 
" The atheist holds that the universe is an endless series of 

1 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 87. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 39 1 

causes and effects ad infinitum* and therefore the idea of 
a first cause is an absurdity and a contradiction." The 
" infinite series " of Edwards and of Holyoake are con- 
structed on the same principle. They both ask a cause 
for the cause. 

When, therefore, it is asked, What causes the will to 
effect one volition rather than another ? our answer is, 
Nothing whatever! 

" Of its own effect, will, in its proper conditions, is not 
a partial, but a full and adequate cause. Put your finger 
upon any effect (volition) and ask, What caused this result 
exclusively of the others ? and the reply is, The will, or the 
agent in willing. Ask then what caused the will in its 
conditions to cause the volition, and the reply is, Nothing-. 
Nay, you are a bad philosopher in asking ; for for its 
own effect will or the willing agent is a complete cause : 
as complete a cause as any cause whatever ; and every 
complete cause produces its effect uncausedly. The voli- 
tion, like every other effect, is completely accounted for 
when a complete cause is assigned. To ask what caused 
the complete cause to produce the effect is to ask the cause 
of causation." 1 

But such an "alternative" power, the necessitarian af- 
firms, is incomprehensible and inexplicable. To which we 
need only reply in the language of Hamilton, " The scheme 
of freedom is not more incomprehensible than the scheme 
of necessity." 2 "Omnia exeunt in mysterium" — there is 
nothing the absolute ground of which is not a mystery. 
In saying so much, however, we by no means grant the 

1 Whedon, "Freedom of the Will," p. 92. " Every intelligent effort is an 
exercise of originating creative power which makes the future different from 
what it would have been but for the exercise of this power." — Hazard, " On 
Cmisntion." p. 87. 

2 ''Philosophy," p. 511. 



392 TIJE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

affirmation of Hamilton that " we are unable to conceive 
an absolute commencement [of being or motion] ; we can 
not therefore conceive a free volition." * This is not ad- 
mitted by Mansel, the disciple and annotator of Hamilton, 
as flowing even from his mental " law of the conditioned." 
" It may be true, as a fact, that no material atom has been 
added to the world since the first creation ; but the asser- 
tion, however true, is certainly not necessary. The Power 
which created once must be conceived as able to create 
again, whether that ability is actually exercised or not. 
The same conclusion is still more evident when we pro- 
ceed from the consideration of matter to that of mind. Of 
matter we maintain that the creation of new portions is per- 
fectly conceivable as a result, if not as a process. Every 
man who comes into the world comes into it as a distinct in- 
dividual, having a personality and consciousness of his own ; 
and that personality is a distinct accession to the number 
of persons previously existing. ... I believe that every 
new person that comes into the world is, as a person, a 
new existence." 2 So a volition is a new existence, an ab- 
solute origination, " a beginning of motion " which has its 
source in the primordial power of the human spirit as spir- 
it. The fact is undeniable, the mode is inexplicable. But 
the inconceivability of the mode in which the will creates a 
volition no more renders the fact doubtful than the impos- 
sibility of conceiving how a new and distinct self-conscious 
personality comes into existence invalidates the fact that " I 
exist, and know myself as a distinctly existing being." 

2. The Psychological Argument. — This may be briefly 
stated in the following terms: 

It is a fact of observation and experience that motives do 

1 " Philosophy," p. 508. 2 " Prolegomena Logica," App., note C. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 393 

stand to the will in the relation of causes which necessitate 
volition. They have an exact mathematical commensura- 
bility, and their prevalence is in the precise ratio of their 
antecedent intrinsic strength. If motives are wanting, 
there can be no choice ; bnt when the same motives are 
presented to the same mind, it obeys them with such re- 
markable uniformity that human actions may be reduced 
to statistical tables as reliable and as accurate as tables of 
mortality. 

We might here at once, and with justice, enter our cave- 
at against the attempt to invalidate a primitive datum of 
consciousness by alleged deductions from the exterior phe- 
nomena of human life and history. A primitive datum of 
consciousness is unquestionable and infallible. A process 
of induction is liable to the interpolations of error. The 
latter is therefore a lesser authority than the former, and 
a merely derivative assurance can not be argued against an 
ultimate fact. "We must regard it as a philosophic canon 
that an experience cognition can not conflict with an intu- 
itive belief. The exterior phenomena of life and history, 
properly interpreted, must harmonize with the interior 
facts and laws of the human mind, for what is history 
but the development, under the conditions and relations of 
time, of the primitive powers, ideas, and laws of humanity? 
If, then, consciousness attests the presence in man's spirit- 
ual nature of a power, in the same circumstances, to choose 
either of several ways, we may confidently expect that the 
phenomena of the moral world will not belie that testi- 
mony. Now it is a palpable fact that an unbroken law of 
continuity and uniformity pervades the material universe. 
It is locked up in an unchangeable status. There is no de- 
viation and no progression. All things remain as they were 
since the beginning. The fundamental fact lying at the 



394: THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

basis of this undeviating uniformity of nature is that 
material causes are unipotent, and shut up to one solely 
possible mode of effectuation. 1 And it is equally palpa- 
ble that the phenomena of the moral world, the sphere of 
human life and history, reveal contingency, diversity, al- 
teriety, and progression. Humanity has not revolved in 
cycles, neither has it run in the inflexible grooves of an an- 
terior causation, nor remained in the dead-lock of an un- 
changeable status. History is not an inflexible frame-work 
in which all events have been shaped by necessity ; it is a 
development of the inherent powers and capabilities of hu- 
manity, and it teaches us that new trains of causes have 
been originated, and new conditions have been superin- 
duced by man. The ground-fact which underlies all the 
diversity, contingency, and progress wmich appear in the 
moral world is that volitional causes are equipotent and 
efficient for any one of the several results. 2 In moral de- 
velopment the progressive principle is just the freedom of 
the will. The facts of the inner and outer world are there- 
fore in harmony. 

The theory of the necessitarian assumes that the will is 
a mere passivity, a simple conductor of the impulse which 
motive power exerts,- a mere transition-point where ideal 
force is transformed into physical force, and desires, incli- 
nations, moral convictions, divine influences become neces- 
sary acts. Motives thus prevail by their antecedent in- 
trinsic power just as physical forces prevail in mechanical 
and vital dynamics. And, proceeding upon this assump- 
tion, he labors to construct a science of Ethology in which 
he would anticipate human action by statistics, and show 
how individual character must be in accordance with 
physical and mental causation. Whereas consciousness 

1 Whedou, "Freedom of the Will, " p. 32. 2 Ibid., p. 5G. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 395 

asserts that the will " is not a bleak mechanical thing." 
It is a free alternative power. It is a full, complete, ade- 
quate cause. It is spirit, not matter. 

Now it is freely granted that the mind acts in view of 
motives, acts in accordance with motives, acts in a certain 
qualified sense under the influence of motives ; but the 
freedomist emphatically denies that the will is necessi- 
tated to action by motives. Motives may be reason for 
action, conditions under which will acts, but they are not 
causes 0/ action. They may solicit, invite, urge to action, 
but they can not constrain, compel, and force action. 1 

Motives have no fixed correlation to the will. They ad- 
dress themselves to the feelings, the judgment, the con- 
science, and not directly and immediately to the will. 
They may awaken desire, fear, inclination, preference, a 
sense of obligation ; but these are all states of the intellect 
and sensibility, and may coexist in the same mind with a 
state of indetermination and non-differentiation in the will. 
That which is desirable may appeal to the feelings, that 
which is eligible to the judgment, that which is obligatory 
to the conscience, and these may excite the mind in differ- 
ent degrees of intensity ; but none of them have power to 
move the will. We may be able intellectually to perceive 
;hat some motives are intrinsically " higher " than others, 
that some have a prevolition power to excite all minds 
more intensely than others; but they do not prevail and 
secure action in any ratio with their supposed d priori 
strength. They can only become real motives for the 
will by its voluntary placing its interest in them and 
making them objects of its choice. 2 All the actual 
strength which a motive has is derived from the action 

1 See Calderwood's " Hand-book of Moral Philosophy," pp. 196, 197. 

2 Muller's "Christian Doctrine of Sin," vol. ii. p. 56. 



396 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

of the will. On this subject we offer the following prop- 
ositions : 

(1.) The so-called strength of a motive is the degree of 
probability that the will will act in accordance with or 
on account of it. "And it is most important to remark 
that the result is not always, nor in most cases, necessarily 
as the highest probability. The will may choose for the 
higher or for the lower. And as the will may choose for 
a lower rather than a higher probability, so the will may 
choose on account of what is called antecedently a weaker 
over a stronger motive. And hereby is once for all es- 
tablished the difference between mechanical force and mo- 
tive influence — that whereas in the former, by necessity, 
the greater effect results from the greater force, in the 
latter the less is possible from the greater, the greater from 
the less." 1 That result is not as the highest probabil- 
ity Dr. Whedon has shown most conclusively from the 
doctrine of Contingencies or Probabilities. And on this 
he grounds his doctrine of contingent motive probability. 
"This contingent character of motive influence is corre- 
spondent with the alternative character of that which is 
its sole possible object — will. An alternative will and a 
contingent motive influence are correlatives. They mutu- 
ally explain and sustain each other. To admit either is to 
admit both. And so a unipotent will and a necessary mo- 
tive influence are correlatives. He who is compelled to 
admit one is compelled to admit the other. It will be a 
mere controversy about a word to say that an influence 
which does not produce effect is no influence. That may 
legitimately be called an influence, it is important to add, 
which is conceived as possessing an intrinsic probability 
for result, though the higher probability be a contingency 

1 Whedon, "Freedom of the Will," p. 130. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 397 

for which there exists power of failure. If so, then the 
doctrine of contingent motive influence is established, and 
the doctrine of volitional necessity is at an end. The re- 
lation between physical force and. effect is necessity. The 
relation between motive and volition is contingency? 1 

(2.) The so-called strength of a motive is the compara- 
tive prevalence which the will assigns to it by its own 
action. It is impossible to erect any standard by which 
the intrinsic " strength" of motives can be determined pre- 
vious to volition. " A cold intellection is not intrinsically 
commensurable with a deep emotion, nor a sentiment of 
taste with a feeling of obligation, nor a physical appetite 
with a sense of honor." Now by what standard can the 
comparative force of these influences be determined ? 
There is no more commensurability between them than 
between " the brightness of day and the force of magnetic 
attractions." Or if we could possibly determine, by some 
rational a priori method, that a feeling of obligation is 
intrinsically stronger than .a physical appetite, or that the 
love of life is stronger per se than a sense of duty, we 
can not affirm that the one or the other shall therefore 
uniformly and necessarily prevail. These influences de- 
rive all their prevalency, and consequently their compara- 
tive strength of motive, from the will alone. The will 
places its interest in the one or the other. It decides the 
mental position. "It settles the question of preferences 
between alternatives, dismisses the counter-motive from 
view, and closes the debate." 2 

The "strength" of a motive, in its relation to the will, 
can only be known by the test of prevalency. This is un- 
wittingly conceded by the necessitarian. He says " the 
strongest motive prevails because that is the strongest 

1 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 135. 2 Ibid., p. 193. 



308 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

which the will chooses." This really concedes the position 
assumed by Dr. Whedon, that " the strength of a motive 
is the comparative prevalence which the will, in its own 
action, assigns to it, or the nearness to which the will 
comes to acting on account of it." Men do not always 
choose that which is most desirable, nor that which is most 
eligible, nor that which appears most obligatory. But 
from whatever motive men may choose to act, however 
base and unworthy, the necessitarian affirms it was intrin- 
sically the strongest motive because it was chosen ; which 
simply amounts to this — the strongest motive is always 
chosen because the motive chosen is always the strongest 
motive. 

The attempts of the necessitarian to fix upon some 
standard by which to estimate the antecedent strength of 
motives have all signally failed. The most plausible is 
that of Edwards. He asserts that the volition is always 
as the greatest apparent good. But by what standard is 
that good estimated, by which faculty is it recognized and 
pronounced good? by the reason, the conscience, the judg- 
ment, or the appetites? Can that be pronounced good 
which is chosen in obedience to passion and lust? Does 
the man who inflicts a premeditated injury upon his neigh- 
bor choose. the greatest apparent good? Does the mur- 
derer believe that in taking away the life of his fellow- 
man " the volition is as the greatest apparent good ?" 
Certainly not. " Never," says Bushnell, " was there a case 
of wrong, a sinful choice, in which the agent believed he 
was choosing for the strongest, weightiest, or most valuable 
motives." The great mass of sinful men are conscious 
of choosing sinful indulgence against their " highest good." 

(3.) Motives are the conditions, but not the causes of voli- 
tion. " Of volition the cause, the sole cause, is will. Mo- 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 399 

tives are collateral conditions . . . for the volition to be; 
with which there is adequate power for the volition not 
to be. . . . The motive is only the occasion, and all its acts of 
excitement amount to no more than this, that they stand 
as probable conditions opening the way toward which the 
will thereby acquires opportunity to act with full adequate 
power of not acting." 1 The relation between motive and 
volition is not a necessary but a contingent relation. The 
will is the controlling conscious self in the exercise of di- 
rect causative power in producing volition. 

Some modern writers of the necessitarian school, McCosh 
for example, admit the existence of " self -activity" in the 
will. But what can be the meaning of "self-activity" if 
the will have not the power of either resisting or yielding 
to motives presented, and in the same unchanged circum- 
stances of choosing a different alternative ? To be moved 
absolutely by motives is not self movement. A power to 
move, in only one given direction is a mere nature-force ; 
it can not be self -activity. The distinguished writer above 
named also admits that " causation in the will is entirely 
different from causation in other actions"* If he mean 
that motives act upon the will in a manner " entirely dif- 
ferent" from that by which physical causes secure action 
or change in the material world, what right has he to call 
it causation at all ? And if he mean that volitional 
causation is " alternative," and not, like physical causa- 
tion, " unipotent," then the controversy is at an end. 

(4.) We have no such experience of " uniformities of vo- 
lition''' as shcdl enable us to generalize a universal law 
of volitional causation. The facts of uniformity which 
present themselves in the continuous life of some men 
who were absorbed in one great life-purpose, as also in 
1 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 158. 2 " Intuition," etc., p. 472. 



400 THE THEISTTC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

the conduct of aggregate masses of men, are not denied. 
We affirm that the correct definition of a free will sup- 
poses that it may choose in a generally uniform manner. 
Much of the uniformity in the life of an individual may 
be accounted for by corporeal nature — disposition, stand- 
ard purpose, and habit. " Upon a basis of corporeal, 
psychological, and mental nature are overlaid a primary 
stratum of dispositions blending the natural and the vo- 
litional, and a secondary formation of generic purposes 
wholly volitional, and formed by repetition into a tertiary 
of habits; and thus we have, in his mingled constitution 
of necessitation and freedom, an agent prepared for daily 
free responsible action." l 

Now it may be readily granted that character forms a 
basis of reliable jprohahility as to how in given circum- 
stances a man will act. We may be able to judge, with 
some degree of accuracy, how a man will work in his free- 
dom ; but we can never calculate with absolute certain- 
ty, because we have numberless examples of men acting 
strangely " out of character," and disappointing our most 
confident expectations. 

" There is often the action, great or small, which re- 
verses the record of a life or a protracted course of action. 
He who well watches his neighbor, however blind he may 
be to his own practical self-contradictions, is sure to find, 
even in the life most uniform in its great outline, plenty 
of minor inconsistencies. Or as Muller, in his i Doctrine of 
Sin,' well says, that both our observation and our subject's 
temptation may occur just at the moment of one of his 
great volitional turning-points. From the apostasy of the 
first angels and the fall of man, through the whole course 
of human history, we have innumerable instances of revo- 

1 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 171. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 40 1 

lutionary volitions, not only out of the previous character, 
but shaping a new character. The one disastrous sin of 
Moses, the one great complicated crime of David, the apos- 
tasy of Solomon, the wisest of men, are all proofs how, not 
only in contrasted traits, but in revolutionary acts, a man 

may be 

' The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. ' " l 

Statistics are cited by Buckle, in his " History of Civil- 
ization in England," showing that crimes, suicides, mar- 
riages, etc., occur with remarkable uniformity, as the result 
of general conditions of human society ; and he thence in- 
fers that all the actions of men are governed by a uniform 
law of causation. This uniformity may, however, be as 
easily accounted for on the doctrine of freedom as on the 
doctrine of necessity. In the calculations of contingen- 
cies, while results of compared large aggregates in the 
same conditions may approach equality, the contingency 
of each individual case remains still a contingency. The 
actuary of an insurance company can assert with accuracy 
the average duration of human life in different countries; 
but were he to attempt to predict the duration of any one 
individual life he had insured, he would certainly fail. 
The insured may falsify his predictions by a voluntary act 
of suicide. So though large aggregations of free volitions, 
surrounded by the same motives, may approach equality, 
the freedom of the individital will remains. 2 

And as Mansel very justly remarks, " it is precisely be- 
cause individual actions are not reducible to any fixed law, 
or capable of representation by any numerical calculation, 

1 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 173. 

2 " So long as there are fluctuations at all, even though they be of in- 
finitesimal magnitude as compared with the total, statistical regularity does 
not exclude all room for freedom."— Murphy, "Scientific Basis of Faith," 
p. 84. 

Cc 



402 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

that the statistical averages acquire their value as substi- 
tutes. No one dreams of applying statistical averages to 
calculate the period of the earth's rotation by showing that 
four-and-twenty hours is the exact medium of time, com- 
paring one month's or one year's revolution with another's. 
It is only when individual movements are irregular that it 
is necessary to aim at a proximate regularity by calculat- 
ing in mass." 1 

3. The Theological Argument. — The main points of 
the theological argument may be thus presented : Free- 
dom in a created being is incompatible with the absolute 
sovereignty and prescience of God. To suppose a being 
capable of acting either of several ways is to suppose a 
being out of the control of God. And a free agent can 
not possess power to do otherwise than God foreknows he 
will do. 

In regard to the first of these supposed incompatibilities, 
we need only remark that if the Deity, in order to the ex- 
istence of an equitable moral government, and the conse- 
quent possibility of free responsible action by the creature, 
shall please to subject his omnipotence to conditional lim- 
itations, the necessitarian has no business to object. 2 We 
need feel no solicitude about the Divine sovereignty. 
God will take care of his own honor and defend his own 
high and holy prerogatives. Such self -limiting laws pre- 
scribed by Divine wisdom and love do not place man 
beyond Divine control. The necessitarian will not deny 
that such self-limitation is essential to the very existence 
of the kingdom of nature. God has established an order 



1 "Prolegomena Logica," p. 280. 

2 On self-limitation of the Divine will, see Mtiller, "Christian Doctrine 
of Sin," vol. ii. pp. 208-212. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 4.(33 

in nature, a uniformity of antecedence and sequence, with 
which Omnipotence shall not interfere. " Such a Divine 
law of non-usance of power is still more necessary in the 
kingdom of living agents, and most of all in the realm of 
responsible agents ; it being observable that the more close 
the Divine self-restraint, and the larger the amount of 
powers in the agent left untouched, the more the creative 
system rises in dignity, and the higher God appears as a 
sovereign. Even in the system of living necessitated 
agents, as necessitarians must admit, God forbids Himself 
to disturb the agent's uniform and perpetual acting ac- 
cording to strongest motive." 

The second of these incompatibilities is really predicated 
upon our ignorance, and not upon our knowledge. We 
can not understand how the Divine Intelligence foreknows 
all future events. To enable us to understand the exact 
manner in which an Infinite Intelligence contemplates suc- 
cession in time, it would be necessary that we should be 
infinite also. The fact that God foreknows all future 
events is all that is revealed to us ; the manner of it 
He has left in darkness, and we can throw no light upon 
it by our verbal speculations. 

Of one thing we may rest assured, that as perception 
precedes volition in the finite intelligence, so knowledge 
must precede determination in the Divine Mind. God 
can not will or act in absolute darkness. Divine predes- 
tination must be conditioned on Divine foreknowledge. 1 
His foreknowledge does not depend upon his will, or on the 
adjustment of motives to make us will thus and thus ; but 
He foreknows every thing first conditionally, in the world 
of possibility, before He creates, or determines any thing to 

1 This is unquestionably the doctrine of Scripture, "Whom He foreknew, 
them also He did predestinate. 1 ' 



404 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

be, in the world of fact. Otherwise, all his purposes would 
be grounded in ignorance, not in wisdom, and his knowl- 
edge would consist in following after his will, to learn 
what it had blindly determined. 1 

Another important principle clearly and vigorously main- 
tained by Dr. Whedon is " that the f reeness of an ace is 
not affected by the consideration of its being foreknown." 
First, because the Divine knowledge must always cor- 
respond to the reality. A free action must be known 
as free. " If there be in the free agent, ascertainable by 
psychology, or required by intuition, or supposably seen 
by the Divine eye, the power of putting forth the volition 
with full power of alteriety, then God knows that power." 2 
Secondly, the occurrence of an event or act may be certain 
to Divine foreknowledge, and yet perfectly contingent in 
itself. Foreknowledge renders nothing necessary / it is 
the consequence, not the cause of events. 

If there be a necessity at all in the case, " the necessity 
lies not upon the free act, but upon the foreknowledge. 
The foreknowledge must see to its own accuracy. Pure 
knowledge, temporal or eternal, must conform itself to 
the fact, not the fact to the knowledge." 3 The real dif- 
ficulty is, not how an act can be a free act and yet be 
foreknown (for the act of knowledge can not change the 
object of knowledge), but how God can possibly know 
with certainty a future contingency which may or may 
not happen. 

It is a clear and immediate revelation of consciousness 
that man has a free power of self-determination. Eo rev- 
elation can contradict this revelation. This fact of con- 

1 Bushnell, "Nature and the Supernatural," p. 50. 

2 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 273 ; Miiller, " Christian Doctrine 
of Sin," vol. ii. pp. 236-247. 

3 Whedon, " Freedom of the Will," p. 283. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 405 

sciousness can not be invalidated by any conceptions of 
the logical understanding in regard to the omnipotence or 
prescience of God, for these by their very nature transcend 
all human comprehension. 

III. The method of moral government. — We have seen 
that government, in general, is control exercised with a 
view to the maintenance of order. In the material world, 
order is secured by the direct compulsion of omnipotent 
force. The things of nature are inertly passive under 
the hand of God. They can offer no resistance to the Di- 
vine control, and consequently, in the sphere of nature, 
there can be no real disorder. But in the realm of self- 
determining powers there is the possibility of collision, be- 
cause there is the power to resist the will of God. And, 
as a matter of fact, we know there is opposition, lawless- 
ness, and sin. In that sphere, where above all others the 
demand of the reason is for order, there is the presence 
of disorder — that is, there is disconformity to law and 
consequent suffering. 

And now the question arises, By what method is order 
to be maintained in the sphere of freedom ? How are be- 
ings that have the power to determine for themselves what 
they will choose and do, to be brought to act in harmony 
with the eternal laws of righteousness and love ? 

There are inconsiderate souls who dream that this may 
be achieved by force. God, say they, is omnipotent ; if 
He will the non-extension of evil, He is able to destroy 
it ; if He desire the maintenance of moral order, He can 
compel it. Such reckless declaimers know not what they 
say. 

Had it so pleased God, He could have made beings in 
human form without any sense of moral right and wrong, 
and without any power to commit sin ; but they would not 



406 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

have been rational beings, would not have beeufiee beings, 
would not have been moral beings ; neither could they, in 
any high and proper sense, be happy beings, because they 
could experience no sense of rectitude, no approval of con- 
science, no delight in moral excellence, no blessedness in 
duty and sacrifice. God, indeed, has made many such 
creatures that can not sin. The bee, the ant, the swine, 
the ape — these can not sin ; but they are mere things, not 
free powers; they have no sense of dignity and moral 
worth, no approving conscience, no joy of sacrifice, and no 
immortal hopes. Lived there ever a sane man who would 
change his lot with one of these, even though in being a 
man he has the fearful power to sin, and in sinning, the 
fearful susceptibility to suffer — yea, to suffer eternally ? Is 
there any thing on earth whose value does not fade away 
when compared with the priceless value of being capable 
of duty, of virtue, of devotion, and of sacrifice ? In the 
eyes of God, the humblest of moral beings is worth more 
than all the firmament of stars, and all the teeming myr- 
iads of brutal forms of sense that dwell upon the earth. 
Because God preferred to rule over free powers, and not 
mere things — free powers that could be governed by truth 
and reason and love ; because He loves moral character, 
and cares for it more than all the things " that can be 
piled in the infinitude of space, even though they were dia- 
monds," therefore He bestowed on man this high capacity 
of character — the capacity to know, to choose, to love, to 
enjoy, and in a conscious communion with God to be 
blessed forever. 

But when God thus determines to create a rational and 
free beinff — to make " man in his own ima^e " — He deter- 
mines to make a being who in acting freely may act in op- 
position to the mind of God, and in violation of his holy 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 407 

law. In creatine a free self-determined beino; who shall 
be the cause of his own action, God puts his own omnipo- 
tence under conditional limitations, and renders it mor- 
ally impossible for Him, by mere force, to constrain the 
will of man. The notion of a free will, which is an effi- 
cient cause, being governed by force, is a contradiction. 
Omnipotence may, if it please, annihilate man, but it can 
not control man in the sphere of his freedom. " Powers 
governed by the absolute force or fiat of omnipotence 
would in that fact be uncreate and cease." * 

The moral government of God must deal with man as 
man, must treat him as intelligent and free, and must gov- 
ern him solely by moral influences. He must be controlled 
by the voice of reason and the sense of duty, by persuasion 
and sympathy, by hope and fear ; in short, by motives ad- 
dressed to the judgment, the conscience, and the heart. A 
self-determined being can be brought into harmony with 
the Divine order only by " the schooling of his consent." 
He can be perfected — that is, f ully established in harmony 
with the character and will of God — by the discipline of 
the will. He must, therefore, be placed in such circum- 
stances as invite consent, and at the same time permit re- 
sistance. He is to be trained, furnished, and perfected, and 
to this end he must be carried through just such experi- 
ences, changes, and trials as will best help the formation 
of a noble human character, and will best prepare man for 
the plenitude and blessedness of that life for which the 
present is a course of education and discipline. 2 

Furthermore, God's moral government of the world 
must deal with the actual man — that is, with man as he 
exists in society with certain hereditary taints that are not 
his fault, and under certain unfavorable conditions in 

1 Bushnell, " Nature and the Supernatural," p. 83. 2 Ibid., p. 99. 



408 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

which he has been placed without his consent. "With rev- 
erence, we affirm that God Himself is under moral obliga- 
tion to treat man equitably, to take account of the weak- 
ness which he inherits, the perverted education that has 
been given him, and the depraved associations that sur- 
round him, and graduate his responsibility on the scale of 
his available light. Finally, the moral government of God 
must deal with the man that will he — with that fixed 
character which may be formed by man in the exercise of 
his free power of self-determination, amid the circum- 
stances of his earthly probation. This character must con- 
tain within itself the elements of a blessed or a wretched 
f uturition, and thus a retribution be secured by fixed nat- 
ure, and inflicted by an inflexible necessity. 

That the moral government of God is a probationary 
economy, in which ample scope is afforded for the develop- 
ment of character, and in which we are in the act of be- 
ing proved, is evident, 

(1.) From the fact that all our future interests are de- 
pendent upon our present conduct. God has endowed 
us with some degree of foresight, and has thus made us 
provident beings. We have a native tendency to take ac- 
count of and forecast the future. By the aid of reason 
we can, in some measure, foresee the tendencies of our ac- 
tions ; we can lay our plans for the future, and anticipate 
events which are yet remote. We can also bring to our 
aid the lessons of experience, and from this also we can 
learn that our present action will have a powerful influ- 
ence upon our future condition. We know that the cir- 
cumstances which surround us to-day have been in a large 
degree created or moulded by ourselves, and that many of 
our misadventures and our miseries may be easily traced 
back to particular acts of imprudence and folly on our 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 409 

own part as the cause. So that there is no truth we more 
certainly know than this, that our future happiness of the 
next moment, and of every succeeding stage of our living, 
is dependent upon our present conduct. 

(2.) This is further evident from the fact that the pres- 
ent scene is filled with moral tests and temptations. 
There is in the present life an admixture of good and evil. 
On the one hand there are numerous solicitations to evil ; 
on the other there are motives and inducements to virt- 
ue, the plain intention of which is to prove us. In the 
words of Bishop Butler, " We have here free scope and op- 
portunity for that good or evil conduct which God will 
reward or punish hereafter." This is necessary to moral 
government, because moral government can not exist with- 
out freedom of choice, and consequently the existence of 
those circumstances in which that freedom can be exer- 
cised. That we have freedom of choice we know ; and 
our every-day experience of the temptations to wrong-do- 
ing, and of the difficulties in the way of a uniform adher- 
ence to virtue, teaches us that we are in a state of trial, 
where our principles are being continually put to the test. 

(3.) That our present life is a probation for a future life 
is evident from the fact that in the present life punish- 
ment is deferred, consequences are delayed, to give play 
to the exercise of moral motives. 

Bv " moral motives " we mean regard for what is right 
and just, because it is right and just, respect for the voice 
of conscience, and reverence for the will and requirements 
of God. If the consequences of our moral conduct were 
to follow immediately on the heels of the act, if reward or 
punishment were instantly to ensue, then moral motives 
could have no exercise. If there were no delay — no in- 
terval between sin and its punishment, moral government 



410 THE THE I STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

would cease, and a merely natural government would re- 
main, such as prevails over irrational creatures. Man would 
then be influenced purely by motives of personal interest 
or safety or enjoyment, and his obedience would not be 
the result of moral motives, consequently neither virtuous 
nor vicious. God has, therefore, put the consequences of 
much of our conduct into the future, that we may have 
room for free deliberate choice, while just so much of con- 
sequence is permitted to appear as will clearly indicate 
that we are under moral government, and awaken the an- 
ticipation that all our conduct will be brought into judg- 
ment. 

(4.) That our present life is a probation for a future life 
is more fully proved by the fact that as a moral economy 
the present life is incomplete. The present is a sphere 
too contracted for the equitable administration of rewards 
and punishments, because some of the last actions of men's 
lives, some of their best actions or some of their basest ac- 
tions, would come under neither. The blood of the mar- 
tyrs who died for the faith, or of the patriot who bled for 
his country, would cry alike in vain for vengeance or re- 
ward. The man who first took away his brother's life, and 
then his own, has evaded justice, and escaped punishment. 
The hand of violence has robbed the virtuous man of his 
present reward ; and the suicide, by breaking in upon the 
sanctuary of his own life, has defied and defeated the gov- 
ernment of God, if there be no future life. 

In the present life retribution fails in uniformity. It is 
a proposition which the reason of every man must approve 
■ — that the government of God must be perfectly equitable, 
and that under it every man must receive his just due. 
But men do not receive their requital in this life, conse- 
quently we are bound to affirm that in the present life the 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 411 

Divine administration is incomplete. We can not conceal 
from ourselves the fact that events occur in the present 
life which we can not conceive as benevolently or right- 
eously consummated. These events lift the tyrant to 
power, and trample down the patriot and the freeman. 
The orphan eats the bitter bread of misery, while the man 
who has robbed him of the paternal inheritance revels in 
luxury. The ungodly prosper in the world, " their eyes 
stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could 
wish," while the righteous suffer affliction, and are in need. 
And if there is no future life in which God will balance 
accounts with the universe, and render to every man ac- 
cording to his works, then moral government is incomplete, 
injustice has triumphed, wrong has prevailed. An imper- 
fect retribution and an unequal providence demand a fut- 
ure life for their vindication — a future life both for the 
good and the bad, so that God may reckon with all of 
them — and teach most convincingly that the present life 
is a probation. The experiences, changes, conflicts, trials of 
a probationary economy, are all intended to prove men, to 
test their principles and make manifest their real character. 

The government of God is a moral discipline b} 7 which 
men are trained in the practice and confirmed in the hab- 
its of virtue, and thus brought, by the " schooling of their 
own consent," into harmony with the Divine order. 

It is a question which may be properly entertained, 
whether a free self-determined being can be made perfect 
in moral character in any other manner than by the dis- 
cipline of the will. There certainly can be no created 
moral desert. Responsible character must be the product 
of free choice. A man can no more become virtuous with- 
out the discipline of the will than he can become intelli- 
gent without the discipline of the understanding. For 



412 TIIE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

wherein consists the virtue of a self-determined being ? 
Is.it not in his free choice of what is right and good, his 
resistance to temptation, his voluntary submission to the 
Divine will % Is it not in his integrity, his patience, his 
fortitude, and his resignation ? But how can these virtues 
exist, how can they be exercised, and how brought to ma- 
turity, except in the midst of difficulties and hinderances ? 
Where can patience and resignation and fortitude and 
sympathy have a place, if there are no sufferings to be en- 
dured ? How can firmness and diligence and courage be 
developed, if there are no difficulties and hinderances to 
the practice of virtue ? 

Therefore, in order that men may be trained and edu- 
cated and perfected, they are placed amid such scenes, ex- 
periences, and trials as shall draw out the moral powers of 
the soul, shall strengthen and confirm the will in good- 
ness, and establish them in the law of their being, so that 
their moral future is secure. " Life, thus ordered, is a mag- 
nificent scheme to bring out the value of law, and teach 
the necessity of right as the only conserving principle of 
order and happiness ; teaching the more powerfully, if so 
it must, by disorder and sorrow." Suffering is a chastise- 
ment which is wholesome : it teaches the blessedness of 
purity and the sinfulness of sin ; and it may develop into 
"a godly sorrow" which shall heal and purify the soul. 

The moral government of God is an equitable admin- 
istration, in which responsibility is graduated on the scale 
of available light and opportunity. " This is the condem- 
nation that light is come into the world." Light is the 
symbol of knowledge, because it reveals the right and 
clearly manifests what duty is. Light is consequently the 
exact measure of responsibility. Our knowledge of what 
we ought to do, or ought not to do, determines the degree 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 413 

of our accountability. An absolute and involuntary igno- 
rance would be the most perfect plea of innocence. The 
imputation of sin in such a case would be made void, but 
thereby the completeness of human nature be destroyed. 
That which would relegate man from the sphere of re- 
sponsibility would also banish him from the sphere of 
rationality. 

St. Paul distinctly recognizes an alleviation of responsi- 
bility and guilt in the "ignorance" of heathen life, and 
speaks of a Divine " overlooking of the times of that igno- 
rance" — a non-imputation of sins committed in ignorance. 
But he does not by any means account the sinning hea- 
then as free from all guilt. He shows that they were not 
in utter ignorance, and that much of their ignorance was 
voluntary. He refers to the original consciousness of God, 
and to the fact that this consciousness is kept alive by the 
revelation of God in nature ; and he shows that the dis- 
order of their religious and moral life resulted from the 
voluntary suppression of this consciousness — " When they 
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were 
thankful ; but became vain in their imaginations, and their 
foolish heart was darkened." He also appeals to the no 
less definite power of conscience in the heart of the hea- 
then, " which shows the works required by the law to be 
written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing wit- 
ness to this law, and their thoughts approving or condemn- 
ing each other," and their civil laws "adjudging their 
crimes as worthy of death." So far as their ignorance w r as 
involuntary it was an alleviation of guilt, though not an 
excuse for all sin. Whatever light they had, be it little or 
much, it was the standard and measure of their account- 
ability. 

The Founder of Christianity distinctly recognized this 



414 THE THEISTIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

principle of moral government. " If I had not come and 
spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they 
have no cloak for their sin" — clearly teaching that ig- 
norance would be a negation of guilt, and knowledge an 
aggravation of guilt. Not that we are to suppose that the 
Jews, without the light which Christ supplied, were abso- 
lutely guiltless ; their ignorance was a mitigation of their 
guilt. Christ lays it down as a universal principle that 
knowledge of the Divine law or ignorance of the Divine 
law by the person who violates it is the ground of a dis- 
tinction in the different degrees of culpability. "That 
servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not him- 
self, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with 
many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit 
things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." 1 
This is the uniform rule of the Divine government among 
all nations. 

Increase of light and knowledge necessarily enhances 
human responsibility. " To whomsoever much is given, of 
him shall be much required." More is expected of the 
man than of the child. More is demanded at the hands 
of the man who has been blessed with the advantages of a 
Christian civilization than from the untutored savage. 
The man who has been favored with a liberal education 
is held to a more rigid account than the man who has been 
cradled in ignorance and schooled in vice. And when the 
kingdom of God comes nigh to men, human responsibility 
must be enlarged in commensuration with its blessings. 
There is a holier, richer trust, and consequently a deeper 
obligation. There is a greater light and a greater con- 
demnation. 

" Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! 

1 Luke xii. 47, 48. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 415 

for if the mighty works which were done in yon had been 
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long 
ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto yon, It shall 
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judg- 
ment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art ex- 
alted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell : for if 
the mighty works which have been done in thee had been 
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 
But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the 
land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." 1 

This aspect of the Divine government, which Dr.Whedon 
has felicitously styled " the equation of probational advan- 
tages," relieves our sadness in view of the moral condition 
of the world. " The Judge of all the earth will do right" 
in the case of every human soul that has passed through 
this probationary scene. His omniscient eye can take in at 
one view all the influences and circumstances, favorable or 
unfavorable, which have surrounded each individual, and 
fix the precise amount of responsibility. He will " over- 
look" the "defect of doubt and taints of blood," the faults 
of education and sins of ignorance, and He will make a 
due allowance for the power of temptation, the trammels of 
evil associations, and an enfeebled and perverted nature. 
" He is full of compassion, and his tender mercies are over 
all his works." " He knows our frame, and He remem- 
bers that we are dust." "VVe may safely conjecture that 
a negro hamlet in Central Africa, however inferior in its 
temporal moral aspects, may, in its prospect for an eternal 
destiny, be superior to many an American village. And 
in the dregs of our large cities there are numbers who are 
excluded as effectually from the knowledge of the truth as 
the heathen, and are scarcely developed to the level of 

1 Matt. xi. 21-24. 



416 THE THE! STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

responsibility. These may be the least in the kingdom of 
heaven, but by the law of moral equation they can not be 
excluded. 1 In every nation under heaven, he that has 
feared God and wrought righteousness, according to his 
knowledge and ability, will be " accepted of God" 

The moral government of God secures an infallible 
asd equitable retribution by binding character and conse- 
quence in indissoluble bonds, and evolving a reward or a 
punishment out of that permanent moral state of the soul 
which has been induced by the free self-determination of 
man. 

" Character/' says Novalis, " is a completely fashioned 
will (vollkom?nen gebildeter Wille). It is that ultimate 
stress and determination of the soul which results from the 
coherence and complexure of habits, and habit is the re- 
sult of repeated acts of voluntary choice. From the per- 
sistence of habit a fixed disposition and cast of the inner 
man is evolved which constitutes his moral individuality." 

Even in this formative process we can discern the work- 
ings of the law of retribution. One good deed handsels a 
second, and renders its performance more easy and pleasur- 
able. The man who obeys his conscience feels that he can- 
respect himself. He has a consciousness of growing power ; 
a sense of dignity and moral worth. The moral law is for 
him " a law of liberty." On the other hand, one sinful 
deed involves a second, and drags it after it. One lie de- 
mands another to maintain its consistency. One act of 
injustice emboldens to the next. Self-respect is broken 
down by license, and the path is prepared and cleared for 
further iniquity. Thus, by the repetition of sinful deeds, 
restraints are overborne, depraved habits are engendered, 
vice acquires a mastery over the man, and he becomes a 

1 Whedon, "Freedom of the Will," pp. 355-357. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 417 

slave. There is a deep humiliation in this sense of degra- 
dation and unworthiness. ..The sinner despises himself be- 
cause of his weakness, and blushes in secret places at the 
remembrance of his own debasement. 

The principal happiness or misery of man consists in the 
settled state of his own heart, and not in the outward con- 
ditions of his daily life. All human plaudits are as naught 
compared with the approval of one's own conscience ; and 
no penal inflictions can compare with the anguish of re- 
morse. The inward peace of the righteous soul, the dis- 
quietude and misery of the sinful soul, are the blossom 
and the fruitage of the seed which has been sown, and the 
stem and branches which have been nurtured by the vol- 
untary choices and acts of man. " He that soweth to his 
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth 
to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." The 
connection between sin and punishment is no arbitrary or 
accidental connection. It is just as much a relation be- 
tween cause and effect as the relation between sowing 
and reaping in the physical world. " To cause the mind 
to punish itself, to work a retribution out of ourselves, to 
secure it by fixed nature, to inflict it by inflexible necessity, 
to convert the capacity of sin into the instrument of suffer- 
ing, is the prerogative of Divine rule." 1 

IV. The end of moral government. — We have said that 
the end of government, in general, is the maintenance of 
order. The end of moral government is the maintenance 
of moral order in the realm of free self-determined pow- 
ers. The moral order must consist in conformity to the 
idea of the absolute good. The personality of God (the 
essential momenta of which are reason and freedom, holi- 
ness and love) is per se, in its totality, the absolute good. 

1 Hamilton, " Revealed Doctrine of Rewards and Punishments," p. 88. 

Dd 



418 THE TH EI STIC CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. 

Infinite Personality is but another name for Absolute Per- 
fection. 

The highest good for a created dependent personality is 
"to resemble God" in all those* attributes or perfections 
which constitute personality. It is to be fully established 
in harmony with God's moral character, unified with Him 
in will, glorified with Him in holiness, and perfected with 
Him in the blessedness of love. The highest perfection 
of personal being is moral order, and therefore human 
personality, conceived in its purity and perfection, is the 
end of the Divine government. 1 

This we have called " the ideal order of moral life," be- 
cause it is not yet realized in the world. We must be- 
lieve, however, that the final triumph of goodness is a 
part of the great world-plan. We must not only believe, 
but know, that the great design of creation, the reason for 
which the world exists at all, is that in it goodness may 
come to its final realization. And this conviction is ground- 
ed on the fact that the moral life of humanity has its source 
in the same Being who called the world into existence, and 
who is conducting this present dispensation to a glorious 
consummation, in which He shall " reconcile all things 
unto Himself, . . . whether they be things in earth or things 
in heaven," and "gather together in one all things in 
Christ," that " God may be all in all." 

Christianity bases all the obligations, and sanctions of 
morality on the great truths that God is near to man, that 
He sustains him every moment in life, that He is the Father 
of the human spirit, and that He governs man in order to 
perfect his nature and bring him into an everlasting fel- 

1 "The formation of noble human characters is the highest work that 
man, or, so far as we know, that God can be engaged in." — Murphy, " Sci- 
entific Basis of Faith," p. 39. 



MORAL GOVERNMENT. 419 

lowship with Himself. Christianity knows nothing of "a 
science of morals" which is not based upon the correla- 
tions between man and God, nor of a morality which 
forgets God and disregards the most sacred and funda- 
mental of all duties, namely, the duties we owe to God. 
A morality based solely upon the relations in which we 
stand to our fellow-men is at best but secular and utilita- 
rian. A morality which is grounded upon the relation of 
volition to the state of the sensibility, and regards " happi- 
ness as our being's end and aim," is egoistic and selfish. 
A morality which rests upon our relation to God, the ab- 
solute good, and which looks backward rather than for- 
ward for its motive, is unselfish and Christian. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Absolute creation, 62. 

Absolute, Infinite, and Perfect, relation of 
these terms, 41, 42. 

Action at a distance denied by Newton, 
214; by Leibnitz, Faraday, Helmholtz, 
Thomson, Tait, Maxwell, 214. 

Agassiz on species, 164; on the prepara- 
tion of the earth for man, 254. 

Attraction of gravitation not a primary 
force, 210-220 ; not an essential attribute 
of matter, 211-213. 

Attribute or related essence, 4S-52. 

Augustine, St., on the days of creation, 
150, 151 ; his conception of Divine con- 
servation, 176, 177. 

B. 

Beale, Dr., on distinction between cell-life 
and soul-life, 163 ; on life, 192, 240. 

Being or essence, as reality, efficiency, and 
personality, 42-48. 

Bioplasm, or cell-life, 162, 163. 

Brooke, Prof., on conservation of energy, 
205. 

Biichner, Dr., asserts the eternity of mat- 
ter and force, 24. 

C. 

Calderwood, Prof., on consciousness of 
freedom, 382. 

Carpenter, Dr., on will as the type of all 
force, 39, 237; on distinction between 
molecular and somatic life, 163, 236; on 
the forces of nature as modes of the 
Divine action, 240. 

Catastrophes, common belief in, 100 ; sus- 
tained by science, 101, 102. 

Categories, universal, 41. 

Causative principle, the, must be real, ef- 
ficient, and personal, 44. 

Chalmers's, Dr., incautious concession as 
to the eternity of matter, S6. 



Character, the formation of perfect, noble 
—the highest end, 306, can only be at- 
tained under conditions of freedom, 308, 
and through the inspiration of a higher 
life, 309, 310. 

Christian civilization the age of philan- 
thropy, 285-290. 

Cicero on a universal and immutable mor- 
al law, 379. 

Civilization, each epoch of, has had a dif- 
ferent theatre, 275 ; stages of develop- 
ment in, 277-290. 

Clarke, Dr. Samuel, on immediate agency 
of God in conservation, 178. 

Cohn, Dr., on nature, 333. 

Coleridge on nature, 325 ; on the natural, 
369. 

Comte on irregular variability in nature, 
195, 329. 

Conditions of moral government, 371, 
372. 

Conscience, its nature and authority, 372- 
377 ; its gradual development, 377. 

Consciousness, religious, 304, 305, 345 ; nat- 
ural order of its development, 346-349. 

Conservation, Biblical doctrine of, 174, 
175; conceptions of the mode of conser- 
vation, 176. 

Conservation by secondary causes or agen- 
cies, 181, 1S2; (1) hypothesis of natural 
law, 1S7-201; (2) hypothesis of active 
force inherent in matter, 202-222 ; (3) hy- 
pothesis of plastic nature, 222-235. 

Conservation of energy not an absolute 
law, 205, 206 ; limited by the law of dis- 
sipation of energy, 207 ; not fairly stated 
by Dr. Tyndall in his discussion on 
prayer, 331, 332; no evidence that it 
holds in the realm of vital dynamics and 
psycho-dynamics, 332; is not absolute 
in the realm of physics, 332. 

Continuity of the ether, 217. 

Correlation between God and man, 344. 

Creation, Biblical account of, not designed 



422 



INDEX. 



to teach science, 136-13S ; poetic, sym- 
bolical, and uiichronological, 13S-151. 

Creation by law, 19G. 

Creation ex nihilo, bow understood by the 
Christian Fathers, 92; not discredited 
by the progress of science, 93. 

Creation, its history, 126-171; a gradual 
process, 152-155; cumulative, 150-166; 
consecutive, 166-171 ; harmonious, 169, 
170 ; final purpose of creation, 130-133. 

Creation, the conception of, 56 ; the Bib- 
lical conception of, can not be deter- 
mined on philological grounds, 56-5S; 
how to be determined, 5S-61 ; distinc- 
tion between absolute and architectonic, 
61 ; an origination de novo, 60, 61 ; a 
voluntary act of God, 63-68 ; not deter- 
mined by any inherent necessity, 64 ; not 
conditioned ab extra, 66. 

Cudworth on a plastic nature, 222-225. 

D. 

Days of the creative week, 145-151. 

Defects in nature, supposed, not removed 
by hypothesis of unconscious intelli- 
gence, 232, 233 ; this supposition based 
upon our ignorance of nature as a whole, 
233-235. 

Descartes, his conception of God, 29. 

Dissipation of mechanical energy, 120, 121, 
207-209. 

Dualism, Oriental, 23. 

Duration not identical with time, 77; nor 
with eternity, 77 ; a quality of depend- 
ent existence, 81 •, a fact of conscious- 
ness, S2. 

E. 

Earth, secular cooling of the, 105-108 ; in- 
dications of surface transformations of 
the, 108, 109. 

Earth, the, a school-house for man, 258. 

End of moral government, 417-419. 

Energy, conservation, transformation, and 
dissipation of, US, 119; defined, 194; 
distinction between force and energy, 
203; laws of conservation and trans- 
formation limited by the law of dissipa- 
tion, 207-209 ; cases of transformation, 
237 ; all the forms of energy are trans- 
formations of one Omnipresent force, 
237. 

Eternity an attribute of God, 77, 83, 84. 

Ether, hypothesis of the, 113; a resisting 
medium, 114, 115; absolute continuity 
of the, 217, 21S. 

Experience can not attain to a universal 
truth, 190. 

Extension a quality of matter, 81 ; not a 



predicate of space, 79; a percept of 
sense, 81. 

F. 

Faraday on the possible and the im- 
possible, 195; on action at a distance, 
214. 

Final purpose of creation revealed iu 
Scriptures, 130-133 ; not discoverable by 
science, 234, 245. 

Force defined, 203, 236; the ultimate of all 
ultimates, according to Spencer, 25 ; the- 
ory that matter is a phenomenon of 
force, 123 ; the power of God, 123 ; dis- 
tinct from energy, 203 ; not inherent in 
matter, 219, 236 ; tendency of modern 
scientists to hypostatize, 227 ; spirit- 
force the only force, 236, 237, 341 ; a met- 
aphysical idea, 340 ; the expression of 
will, 341. 

Forces, primary, of nature, 209 ; a perpet- 
ual stream of power from the Infinite 
Spirit, 221, 222. 

Foreknowledge of God and human free- 
dom, 402-405. 

Formation implies origination, 97. 

Free self-determining power of the will, 
3S0, 387; arguments against — (1) Meta- 
physical or causational, 387, 392 ; (2) Psy- 
chological, 392-402 ; (3) Theological, 402- 
405 ; conceded by Dr. Tyndall, 335. 

Freedom of God, absolute, 63. 

G. 

Galton on the efficacy of prayer, 313. 

Geographical conditions, their influence 
on the character of nations, 258-264. 

Geology points back to a beginning, 104- 
110. 

Geological changes indicate a preparation 
for man, 254-257. 

God, omnipotence of, and human freedom, 
355-359. 

God the author and giver of life, 240. 

God, the existence of, the fundamental 
postulate of all philosophy and all re- 
ligion, 291, 292. 

God, the fatherhood of, 359-365. 

God the first principle and unconditioned 
cause of all existence, 27; the content 
of our conception of, 27 ; the idea of, a 
phenomenon of the universal intelli- 
gence of our race, 2S; idea and concept 
of, 350; harmony of the Biblical and 
philosophic conception of, 46, 47; dis- 
tinction between the nature and essence 
of, 62, 63 ; not necessarily but freely just 
and good, 63 : immanence of, in nature, 
174, 175, 240, 241. 



INDEX. 



423 



Government of God, distinction between 
physical, natural, and moral, 367, 368. 

Gravitation — attraction not a universal 
and necessary attribute of matter, 191, 
211-213; must have a cause, 214; trans- 
mitted by the ether, 215 ; instantaneous, 
215; cause of, not material, 216 ; a deriv- 
ative force, 221. 

Grecian civilization the youth of hunian- 

* ity,2S0-2S2. 

Grove on causation, 39 ; on force, 340. 



Hamilton, Sir William, confounds space 
and extension, 72; also space and im- 
mensity, 73 ; confuses the concepts time, 
duration, and eternity, 76 ; on the in- 
conceivability of an absolute commence- 
ment, 93. 

Harmony between the philosophic con- 
ception of force and the religious con- 
ception of God, 33S-343. 

Hebrew civilization the childhood of hu- 
manity, 27S-2S0. 

Hedge, Dr., on the immanence of God in 
nature, 186. 
r Hegel on Thought as the supreme reality, 
25. 

Helmholtz denies direct action at a dis- 
tance, 214. 

Herschel, Sir John, his conception of mat- 
ter, 95, 125, 237 ; on force, 39, 341 ; on 
universal gravitation, 191 ; on law, 19S ; 
on conservation of energy, 205, 206. 

History a revelation of Divine providence, 
246 ; the goal of, is the perfection of hu- 
manity, 24S; the especial field of Divine 
providence, 253. 

Human race commenced its history in the 
Temperate Zone, 264-268 ; distribution 
of the, not governed by the same law as 
the distribution of plants and animals, 
272; distribution of, indicates a Provi- 
dential guidance, 273. 

Human freedom and Divine omnipotence, 
355-359; and Divine prescience, 402-405. 

Humanity, perfection of, in what does it 
consist? 24S, 249. 

I. 

Immanence of God in nature, 174, 175, 
240, 241 ; the doctrine of, not pantheist- 
ic, 241, 242. 

Immanent attributes of God, 50 ; an eter- 
nal and necessary inbeing, 52. 

Immensity an attribute of God, 75, 81, 83, 
84. 

Inertia of matter, 220, 235. 



Infinite series a contradiction in adjecto, 

90. 
Interception of force by matter, 220. 



Laplace on the stability of the solar sys- 
tem, 113. 

Laurent on Providence, 247. 

Law, creation by, 196; meaning of the 
term, 197-200. 

Laycock, Dr., on the law of design, 129; 
on life, 192 ; on science, 195. 

Life, distinction between molecular and 
individual, 163; molecular, the result 
of the immediate presence and agency 
of God, 239; the cause, not the conse- 
quence of organization, 240. 

Love the highest determining principle 
of the Divine efficiency, 130, 131. 

M. 

Mahau, Dr. A., his fatal concession to 
Hume, 88 ; on an infinite series, 88 ; re- 
jects the d priori argument for the be- 
ing of @od, 8S-91. 

Mansel on the conceivability of a com- 
mencement of existence, 94. 

Martineau asserts the coeval and coeter- 
nal existence of something objective to 
God, 67 ; if true, would invalidate every 
proof of the existence of God, 67, 68 ; on 
the separate spheres of religion and sci- 
ence, 296. 

Matter a created entity, 95, 125. 

Matter, eternity of, affirmed by Martineau, 
67 ; a fatal admission, which imperils 
the Theistic argument, 85-92. 

Matter, theory that, is a phenomenon or a 
function of force, 123, 124, 228, 236 ; a 
real entity, 235. 

Maxwell, Prof., on the nature of matter, 
124 ; regards matter as a created entity, 
125, 126 ; rejects the doctrine of action 
at a distance, 214 ; on the origin of mo- 
tion, 219. 

McCosh concedes that space and time are 
not independent of God, 68 ; on propor- 
tions of infinite space, 74; on causation 
in the will, 399. 

Mechanical theory of the origin of things, 
299, 300. 

Method of the Divine government, 405- 
407; a probationary economy, 408-411 ; 
a moral discipline, 411, 412 ; an equita- 
ble administration, in which responsi- 
bility is graduated on the scale of avail- 
able light and opportunity, 412-^16; se- 
cures an infallible and equitable retri- 



424 



INDEX. 



bution by connecting character and 
consequence, 416, 417. 

Mill, J. S., on Teleology, 128 ; on uniform- 
ity of nature, 1S9. 

Mind, stages of development of, in the in- 
dividual, 276, 277. 

Mind the primal source of all being, 3S ; 
the first cause of motion, 236 ; the one 
and only source of power, 237. 

Mivart on unconscious intelligence, 226. 

Montesquieu, his definition of law, 198. 

Moral attributes or perfections of God, 51 ; 
an everlasting voluntary becoming, 52, 
63. 

Moral government, its grounds, 351-365 ; 
its nature, 366-371 ; its subjective condi- 
tions, 371, 404 ; its end, 417-419. 

Moral ideas of the reason identical in all 
men, 378-3S0. 

Motion, origin of, 219. 

Motives, moral, do not act causally on the 
will, 393-396 ; the so-called strength of 
motives discussed, 397-402. 

Midler on Divine love as the highest de- 
termining principle of the Dtvine effi- 
ciency, 131. 

Murphy, J. J., on unconscious intelligence, 
225 ; on matter and force, 227-229 ; his 
doctrine involves Pantheism, 229, 230. 

N. 

Natural and moral distinguished, 369-371. 

Nature, meaning of the term, 193, 325 ; 
course of,. 326; constitution of, 326, 329 ; 
controlled and modified by man, 335, 
336; therefore also controlled by God, 
337. 

Nebular hypothesis implies a beginning, 
110, 111. 

Necessitarians, theory of, 394, 395. 

Newman, John Henry, his conception of 
God, 31. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, his conception of God, 
29 ; teaches that God constitutes space 
and duration, 68 ; denies action at a dis- 
tance, 214 ; denies that gravity is inher- 
ent in and essential to matter, 211, 213. 

Niebuhr on Divine providence, 246. 

Nitzsch teaches that God is the cause of 
space and time, 69. 

Norton, Prof., on Atomic Forces, 209 ; his 
doctrine that atomic repulsion is the 
primary force, 220 ; teaches that the In- 
finite Spirit is the primal source of all 
force, 221, 222. 

O. 

Omnipotence of God and human freedom, 
355-359. 



Order of nature, facts concerning* the, 
which are supposed to conflict with the 
efficacy of prayer, 310. 

Order of the universe had a beginning, 98. 

Oriental civilization the infancy of hu- 
manity, 275. 

Origin of things, mechanical theory of the, 
299, 300 ; vito-dynamical theory of, 299. 

Origination and formation, 97. 

Owen, Prof. R., on the preparation of the 
earth for man, 255, 256. 

P. 

Pantheism, the doctrine of unconscious 
intelligence ends in, 229, 230. 

Perfect personality of God, 51. 

Permanence of substance, force, and law, 
15. 

Permanence of the universe, no a priori 
ground for belief in the, 100, 188, 189. 

Phenomena of the universe in ceaseless 
change, 14. 

Physical and spiritual distinguished, 368. 

Physical geography indicates a prepara- 
tion of the earth for man, 257. 

Plastic nature, theory of a, 183, 222-235. 

Plato taught that a perfect mind is the 
primal source of all existence, 3S. 

Porter, Dr., regards space as an entity, 69. 

Prayer — have our prayers any influence 
with the Supreme Power ? 292 ; impor- 
tance of this question, 292, 293 ; natural 
to man, 302-304; an essential element 
of life, 304-310 ; necessary to the forma- 
tion of noble character, 306-30S; attacks 
on the efficacy of, from the stand-point 
of experience, 313-321 ; from the theo- 
retic stand-point, 321-338. 

Prayer-gauge, the, not presented in terms 
of experience, and therefore not capable 
of experimental application, 317, 318. 

Problem, the central, specifically stated, 
21, 22. 

Procter on Divine supervision and con- 
trol, 176. 

Providence, statement of the Christian 
doctrine of, 245, 246 ; the course of hu- 
man history a revelation of, 246, 247 ; 
defined, 252 ; in the physical universe, 
254; nature and history the two great 
factors of Divine providence, 25S. 

E. 

Reality of the external world, 14. 

Relation between God and man— (1) con- 
tiguity, 351-353; (2) immanency, 353- 
359 ; (3) paternity and filiation, 359-365. 

Religion, the sphere of, 294-297 ; inade- 



INDEX. 



425 



qnate definition of, by Spencer, 298; 

tine conception of, 295. 
Religious consciousness, the content of, 

304, 305 ; order of development of, 346- 

349. 
Religious feeling, the facts of, as incon- 

testible as the facts of Physics, 296 ; 

statement of the facts of, 302-310. 
Repulsion the primary force, 220. 
Richter on the providence of God in his- 
tory, 247. 
Roman civilization the manhood of the 

race, 2S2-2S5. 

S. 

Schleiermacher on the cause of space and 
time, 69. 

Science and Religion, the apparent antag- 
onism between them, 297, 29S. 

Science, modern, its metaphysical tend- 
ency, 103 ; the sphere of science, 294- 
297. 

Self, the fundamental reality of, 13. 

Solar heat, dissipation of, 116, 117 ; must 
be finally exhausted, 118. 

Space—what is space? 69-78; is absolute 
vacuity, 69, 70 ; is an entity, 69 ; is a re- 
lation. 71-75 ; confusion of thought in re- 
gard to, 71 ; confounded with extension, 
72— by Hamilton, 72, 73— by McCosh, 73 
— by Cousin, 74; confounded with im- 
mensity, 74; the relation of coexistence 
among extended bodies, 82. 

Special providence and the efficacy of 
prayer, the present issue between sci- 
ence and religion, 291. 

Species, the essential element of, a spirit- 
ual entity, 164. 

Spencer asserts that force is the ultimate 
of all ultimates, 25 ; his definition of 
law, 19S ; admits that will -force sym- 
bolizes the cause of all change, 40, 341. 

Spinoza, his assertion that all determina- 
tion is negation, 43. 

Spirit-force the only force in the universe, 
236. 

Stewart, Dugald, on the impossibility of 
annihilating space, 70 ; answer thereto, 
71. 

Sufficient reason, the law of, 31. 

Symbolical Hymn of Creation, 140-142. 



Tait, Prof., rejects direct action at a dis- 
tance, 214. 

Teleological idea the highest law of the 
universe, 12S-130; not invalidated by 
the doctrine of evolution, 171. 

Temperate Zone, the human race com- 



menced its history in the, 264-268 ; pure- 
ly zoological data would lead us to fix 
that starting-point in the Torrid Zone, 
268-272 ; a providence here revealed, 273, 
274. 

Temporal character of the universe, 98 ; 
the order of the universe had a begin- 
ning, 98 ; this has been the common be- 
lief of all ages, 99 ; all philosophers have * 
recognized a beginning, 101 ; modern 
science sustains this belief, 102, 103 ; 
Geology points back to a beginning, 104- 
110; astronomical paletiology confirms 
the law of finite duration, 110-118; 
Physics especially sustains the belief, 
118-121. 

Thomas Aquinas, his notion of conserva- 
tion, 177. 

Thomson, Sir William, on secular cooling 
of the earth, 107, 108; on dissipation of 
energy, 119, 120 ; on the argument from 
design, 129 ; rejects direct action at a 
distance, 214 ; on life, 240. 

Tidal friction dissipates mechanical en- 
ergy, 115. 

Time or Succession, what is it ? 78 ; con- 
founded by most philosophers with du- 
ration, 75, and with eternity, 75 ; con- 
sequences of this confusion, 76 ; answer 
of McCosh, 78; of Dr. Porter, 80; time * 
the measure of finite duration, 83. 

Transformation of energy, 208 ; illustra- 
tions of, 237. 

Transitive or relative attributes of God, 50. 

Tyndall on impossibilities in nature, 196; 
on the certainty of the facts of religious 
experience, 296; admits that the great 
problem of the age is to find a legiti- 
mate satisfaction for the religious emo- 
tions, 300 ; prescribes the conditions un- 
der which it must be solved, 301 ; admits 
that religion can not be dislodged from 
the heart of man, 304; believes in the 
existence of God, 312 ; his attack on the 
efficacy of prayer from the stand-point 
of science, 321-338; does not deny that 
God may create energj', 332 ; admits the 
interference of personal volition in nat- 
ure, 332-334 ; grants that the conception 
of a universal Father who controls the 
phenomena of nature is not unscientific, 
337; distinguishes between the force 
which animates nature and the God who 
answers prayer, 33S-340. 

TJ. 

Unconditioned Will the principle of all re- 
ality, efficiency, and perfection, 34,41-48. 



426 



INDEX. 



Unconscious intelligence, doctrine of, 225 ; 
impossibility of forming any conception 
of,. 226, 22T; no difficulties relieved by 
this hypothesis, 232-235. 

Uniformity of Nature, meaning of the 
term, 193-196 ; 325-330. 

Uniformity of the course of nature not an 
intuitive belief, 99, 188-190, 321,326; an 

' assumption, 322 ; what ground is there 
for this assumption? 322-324. 

Unity, demand of the reason for, 23. 

Unity of the Cosmos, 15. 

Universal beliefs, authority of, 100, 101. 

Universal Father controlling nature a sci- 
entific conception, 336, 337. 

Universe an effect, 21 ; had a commence- 
ment in time, and will therefore have an 
end, 98-121 ; not a conservative but a 
dissipative system, 118-121; dependent 
on the Divine conservation every mo- 
ment, 174-177. 

V. 

Vito-dynamical theory of the origin of 

things, 299. 
Volition, reality of personal, 334. 

W. 

Wallace on unconscious intelligence, 226; 
regards all force as will-force, 39. 



Wesley on Divine conservation of the 
world, 179. 

Whedon, Dr., on causation in the will, 
390-391; on the so-called strength of 
motives, 396, 397, 399, 400; on Divine 
foreknowledge, 404 ; on equation of pro- 
bational advantages, 415. 

Whewell, Prof., on law and cause, 200 ; on 
the origin of force, 341. 

Will the fountain-head of all force, 3S; 
so recognized by scientists, 39, 40 ; this 
doctrine the balancing-point of a moral 
theism, 37. 

Will, the freedom of the, 380-387 ; direct 
testimony of consciousness, 381-384; 
presupposed by the idea of moral obli- 
gation, 384, 385 ; and by the sense of ob- 
ligation, 385, 386. 

Will the real essence of the soul, 35, 36 ; is 
more than mere power of energy, 35; 
the synthesis of reason and power, 197. 

Will, the unconditioned, 34; the absolute 
first principle, 25; the Divine will the 
source of all the forms of force in the 
universe, 237. 

Winchell, Dr., on surface transformations 
of the earth, 109 ; on molar aggregation, 
162; on species, 164; on the harmony 
between the Mosaic and geological rec- 
ords, 155. 



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THE DESERT OF THE EXODUS. Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the 
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